UCSB    LIBRARY 


TREASURES 


THE   PROSE   WRITINGS 


OF 


JOHN    MILTON. 


"Hath  he  not  always  treasures,  always  friends,— 
The  good,  great  man?" 

COLBRIDGB. 


BOSTON : 

TICKNOR    AND    FIELDS. 
1866. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1865,  by 

TICKNOR    AND    FIELDS, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


UNIVERSITY  PRESS  :  WELCH,  BIGELOW,  &  Co., 
CAMBRIDGE. 


To 
JOHN   GREENLEAF  WHITTIER, 

THIS   EDITION   OF 

TREASURES  FROM  MILTON'S  PROSE  WRITINGS 

IS   DEDICATED 

BY  THE  PUBLISHERS. 


PREFACE. 


HE  Prose  Writings  of  Milton,  inspired 
by  the  stirring  events  amid  which  they 
were  written,  form  his  contribution  to 
the  literature  of  freedom.  To  them 
were  given  the  matured  powers  of  a  mind  en- 
riched by  varied  studies,  and  ripened  by  medita- 
tion. They  form  the  labors  of  his  life,  grand  in 
thought  and  expression,  as  the  poetic  recreations 
of  his  earlier  and  later  years  are  sublime  and 
beautiful.  In  them  his  opinions,  character,  mo- 
tives and  conduct  are  portrayed  with  singular 
fidelity. 

It  is  the  aim  of  this  volume  to  present  a  se- 
lection from  Milton's  Prose  Writings,  comprising 
some  of  the  author's  best  thoughts,  and  setting 
forth  as  clearly  as  possible  Milton  himself,  show- 
ing impartially  his  merits  and  faults  as  a  writer 


vi  PREFACE. 

and  as  a  man.  It  will  not  have  been  prepared 
in  vain,  if  it  shall  serve  to  make  more  widely 
known  the  Treasures  of  truth  and  beauty  in 
these  Prose  Writings,  and  the  true  greatness 
of  soul  in  their  much  abused  author.  And 
may  the  principles  of  civil  and  religious  free- 
dom, here  so  eloquently  defended,  triumph  every- 
where. 

FAYETTE    KURD. 
July  12,  1865. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

FEOM  THE  TREATISE  OP  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND  .       .  1 

FROM  THE  TREATISE  OF  PRELATICAL  EPISCOPACY  .  .  25 
FROM  THE  REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT  URGED  AGAINST 

PRELATY 28 

FROM  ANIMADVERSIONS  UPON  THE  REMONSTRANT'S  DEFENCE 

AGAINST  SMECTYMNUUS 63 

FROM  AN  APOLOGY  FOR  SMECTYMNUUS  ....  77 

FROM  THE  TRACTATE  ON  EDUCATION iOO 

FROM  AREOPAGITICA 107 

FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND  DISCD?LINE  OF  DIVORCE  .  .  132 

FROM  TETRACHORDON 161 

FROM  THE  TENURE  OF  KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES  .  .  170 

FROM  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  ARTICLES  OF  PEACE,  &c.  .  189 

FROM   ElKONOKiASTES 193 

FROM  A  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND  .  .  255 

FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND  296 
FROM  A  TREATISE  OF  CIVIL  POWER  IN  ECCLESIASTICAL 

CAUSES 355 

FROM  CONSIDERATIONS  TOUCHING  THE  LONELIEST  MEANS 

TO  REMOVE  HIRELINGS  OUT  OF  THE  CHURCH  .  .  362 
FROM  THE  READY  AND  EASY  WAY  TO  ESTABLISH  A  FREE 

COMMONWEALTH 376 


yiii  CONTENTS. 

FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN 889 

FROM  THE  TREATISE  OF  TRUE  RELIGION,  HERESY,  SCHISM, 

TOLERATION 401 

FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS 406 

FROM  THE  LETTERS  OF  STATE 417 

FROM  THE  TREATISE  ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE         .        .  430 


A  LIST  OF  MILTON'S  PROSE  WORKS 467 

INDEX 473 


.FROM  THE  TREATISE 

OF   REFORMATION   IN   ENGLAND. 

r  MIDST  those  deep  and  retired  thoughts, 
which,  with  every  man  Christianly  in- 
structed, ought  to  be  most  frequent  of 
God,  and  of  his  miraculous  ways  and 
works  amongst  men,  and  of  our  religion  and 
works,  to  be  performed  to  him ;  after  the  story 
of  our  Saviour  Christ,  suffering  to  the  lowest  bent 
of  weakness  in  the  flesh,  and  presently  triumph- 
ing to  the  highest  pitch  of  glory  in  the  spirit, 
which  drew  up  his  body  also ;  till  we  in  both  be 
united  to  him  in  the  revelation  of  his  kingdom,  I 
do  not  know  of  anything  more  worthy  to  take  up 
the  whole  passion  of  pity  on  the  one  side,  and  joy 
on  the  other,  than  to  consider  first  the  foul  and 
sudden  corruption,  and  then,  after  many  a  tedious 
age,  the  long-deferred,  but  much  more  wonderful 
and  happy  reformation  of  the  Church  in  th,ese 
latter  days.  Sad  it  is  to  think  how  that  doctrine 
of  the  Gospel,  planted  by  teachers  divinely  in- 
spired, and  by  them  winnowed  and  sifted  from  the 


2  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

chaff  of  overdated  ceremonies,  and  refined  to  such 
a  spiritual  height  and  temper  of  purity,  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  Creator,  that  the  body,  with  all  the 
circumstances  of  time  and  place,  were  purified  by 
the  affections  of  the  regenerate  soul,  and  nothing 
left  impure  but  sin;  faith  needing  not  the  weak 
and  fallible  office  of  the  senses,  to  be  either  the 
ushers  or  interpreters  of  heavenly  mysteries,  save 
where  our  Lord  himself  in  his  sacraments  or- 
dained; that  such  a  doctrine  should,  through  the 
grossness  and  blindness  of  her  professors,  and  the 
fraud  of  deceivable  traditions,  drag  so  downwards, 
as  to  backslide  one  way  into  the  Jewish  beggary 
of  old  cast  rudiments,  and  stumble  forward  another 
way  into  the  new-vomited  paganism  of  sensual 
idolatry,  attributing  purity  or  impurity  to  things 
indifferent,  that  they  might  bring  the  inward  acts 
•of  the  spirit  to  the  outward  and  customary  eye- 
service  of  the  body,  as  if  they  could  make  God 
-earthly  and  fleshly,  because  they  could  not  make 
themselves  heavenly  and  spiritual ;  they  began  to 
draw  down  all  the  divine  intercourse  betwixt  God 
and  the  soul,  yea,  the  very  shape  of  God  himself, 
into  an  exterior  and  bodily  form,  urgently  pretend- 
ing a  necessity  and  obligement  of  joining  the  body 
in  a  formal  reverence  and  worship  circumscribed  ; 
they  hallowed  it,  they  fumed  up,  they  sprinkled  it, 
they  bedecked  it,  not  in  robes  of  pure  innocency, 
but  of  pure  linen,  with  other  deformed  and  fan- 
tastic dresses,  in  palls  and  mitres,  gold,  and  gew- 


OF  REFORMA  TION  IN  ENGLAND.  3 

gaws  fetched  from  Aaron's  old  wardrobe,  or  the 
flarains  vestry :  then  was  the  priest  set  to  con  his 
motions  and  his  postures,  his  liturgies  and  his  lur- 
ries, till  the  soul,  by  this  means  of  overbodying 
herself,  given  up  justly  to  fleshly  delights,  bated 
her  wing  apace  downward :  and  finding  the  ease 
she  had  from  her  visible  and  sensuous  colleague, 
the  body,  in  performance  of  religious  duties,  her 
pinions  now  broken,  and  flagging,  shifted  off  from 
herself  the  labor  of  high-soaring  any  more,  forgot 
her  heavenly  flight,  and  left  the  dull  and  droiling 
carcass  to  plod  on  in  the  old  road,  and  drudging 
trade  of  outward  conformity.  And  here,  out  of 
question,  from  her  perverse  conceiting  of  God  and 
holy  things,  she  had  fallen  to  believe  no  God  at 
all,  had  not  custom  and  the  worm  of  conscience 
nipped  her  incredulity :  hence  to  all  the  duties  of 
evangelical  grace,  instead  of  the  adoptive  and 
cheerful  boldness  which  our  new  alliance  with 
God  requires,  came  servile  and  thrallike  fear :  for 
in  very  deed,  the  superstitious  man,  by  his  good- 
will, is  an  atheist ;  but  being  scared  from  thence 
by  the  pangs  and  gripes  of  a  boiling  conscience, 
all  in  a  pudder  shuffles  up  to  himself  such  a  God 
and  such  a  worship  as  is  most  agreeable  to  remedy 
his  fear ;  which  fear  of  his,  as  also  is  his  hope, 
fixed  only  upon  the  flesh,  renders  likewise  the 
whole  faculty  of  his  apprehension  carnal ;  and  all 
the  inward  acts  of  worship,  issuing  from  the  native 
strength  of  the  soul,  run  out  lavishly  to  the  upper 


4  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

skin,  and  there  harden  into  a  crust  of  formality. 
Hence  men  came  to  scan  the  Scriptures  by  the  let- 
ter, and  in  the  covenant  of  our  redemption,  mag- 
nified the  external  signs  more  than  the  quickening 
power  of  the  Spirit ;  and  yet,  looking  on  them 
through  their  own  guiltiness  with  a  servile  fear, 
and  finding  as  little  comfort,  or  rather  terror,  from 
them  again,  they  knew  not  how  to  hide  their 
slavish  approach  to  God's  behests,  by  them  not 
understood,  nor  worthily  received,  but  by  cloak- 
ing their  servile  crouching  to  all  religious  pre- 
sentments, sometimes  lawful,  sometimes  idola- 
trous, under  the  name  of  humility,  and  terming 
the  piebald  frippery  and  ostentation  of  ceremonies 
decency. 

BUT,  to  dwell  no  longer  in  characterizing  the 
depravities  of  the  Church,  and  how  they  sprung, 
and  how  they  took  increase,  when  I  recall  to  mind 
at  last,  after  so  many  dark  ages,  wherein  the  huge 
overshadowing  train  of  error  had  almost  swept  all 
the  stars  out  of  the  firmament  of  the  Church  ;  how 
the  bright  and  blissful  Reformation  (by  Divine 
power)  struck  through  the  black  and  settled  night 
of  ignorance  and  antichristian  tyranny,  methinks 
a  sovereign  and  reviving  joy  must  needs  rush  into 
the  bosom  of  him  that  reads  or  hears ;  and  the 
sweet  odor  of  the  returning  gospel  imbathe  his 
soul  with  the  fragrancy  of  heaven.  Then  was  the 
sacred  Bible  sought  out  of  the  dusty  corners  where 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.  5 

profane  falsehood  and  neglect  had  thrown  it,  the 
schools  opened,  divine  and  human  learning  raked 
out  of  the  embers  of  forgotten  tongues,  the  princes 
and  cities  trooping  apace  to  the  new  erected  ban- 
ner of  salvation ;  the  martyrs,  with  the  unresist- 
able  might  of  weakness  shaking  the  powers  of 
darkness,  and  scorning  the  fiery  rage  of  the  old 
red  dragon. 

HE  that,  enabled  with  gifts  from  God,  and  the 
lawful  and  primitive  choice  of  the  Church  assem- 
bled in  convenient  number,  faithfully  from  that 
time  forward  feeds  his  parochial  flock,  has  his  co- 
equal and  compresbyterial  power  to  ordain  minis- 
ters and  deacons  by  public  prayer,  and  vote  of 
Christ's  congregation  in  like  sort  as  he  himself  was 
ordained,  and  is  a  true  apostolic  bishop.  But  when 
he  steps  up  into  the  chair  of  pontifical  pride,  and 
changes  a  moderate  and  exemplary  house  for  a 
misgoverned  and  haughty  palace,  spiritual  dignity 
for  carnal  precedence,  and  secular  high  office  and 
employment  for  the  high  negotiations  of  his  heav- 
enly embassage,  then  he  degrades,  then  he  un- 
bishops  himself;  he  that  makes  him  bishop,  makes 
him  no  bishop. 

THUS  then  did  the  spirit  of  unity  and  meekness 
inspire  and  animate  every  joint  and  sinew  of  the 
mystical  body  :  but  now  the  gravest  and  worthiest 
minister,  a  true  bishop  of  his  fold,  shall  be  reviled 


6  FROM   THE   TREATISE 

and  ruffled  by  an  insulting  and  only  canon-wise 
prelate,  as  if  he  were  some  slight,  paltry  com- 
panion: and  the  people  of  God,  redeemed  and 
washed  with  Christ's  blood,  and  dignified  with  so 
many  glorious  titles  of  saints  and  sons  in  the  Gos- 
pel, are  now  no  better  reputed  than  impure  ethnics 
and  lay  dogs;  stones,  and  pillars,  and  crucifixes 
have  now  the  honor  and  the  alms  due  to  Christ's 
living  members ;  the  table  of  communion,  now 
become  a  table  of  separation,  stands  like  an  ex- 
alted platform  upon  the  brow  of  the  quire,  forti- 
fied with  bulwark  and  barricado,  to  keep  off  the 
profane  touch  of  the  laics,  whilst  the  obscene  and 
surfeited  priest  scruples  not  to  paw  and  mam- 
moc  the  sacramental  bread,  as  familiarly  as  his 
tavern  biscuit.  And  thus  the  people,  vilified  and 
rejected  by  them,  give  over  the  earnest  study  of 
virtue  and  godliness,  as  a  thing  of  greater  purity 
than  they  need,  and  the  search  of  divine  knowl- 
edge as  a  mystery  too  high  for  their  capacities,  and 
only  for  churchmen  to  meddle  with ;  which  is 
what  the  prelates  desire,  that  when  they  have 
brought  us  back  to  popish  blindness,  we  might 
commit  to  their  dispose  the  whole  managing  of 
our  salvation ;  for  they  think  it  was  never  fair 
world  with  them  since  that  time. 


I  AM  not  of  opinion  to  think  the  Church  a  vine 
in  this  respect,  because,  as  they  take  it,  she  can- 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.  1 

not  subsist  without  clasping  about  the  elm  of 
worldly  strength  and  felicity,  as  if  the  heavenly 
city  could  not  support  itself  without  the  props  and 
buttresses  of  secular  authority. 


How  should  then  the  dim  taper  of  this  Emper- 
or's *  age,  that  had  such  need  of  snuffing,  extend 
any  beam  to  our  times,  wherewith  we  might  hope 
to  be  better  lighted,  than  by  those  luminaries  that 
God  hath  set  up  to  shine  to  us  far  nearer  hand  ? 
And  what  reformation  he  wrought  for  his  own 
time,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  consider.  He  ap- 
pointed certain  times  for  fasts  and  feasts,  built 
stately  churches,  gave  large  immunities  to  the 
clergy,  great  riches  and  promotions  to  bishops, 
gave  and  ministered  occasion  to  bring  in  a  deluge 
of  ceremonies,  thereby  either  to  draw  in  the  hea- 
then by  a  resemblance  of  their  rites,  or  to  set  a 
gloss  upon  the  simplicity  and  plainness  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  which,  to  the  gorgeous  solemnities  of 
paganism,  and  the  sense  of  the  world's  children, 
seemed  but  a  homely  and  yeomanly  religion ;  for 
the  beauty  of  inward  sanctity  was  not  within  their 
prospect. 

BUT  it  will  be  replied,  The  Scriptures  are  diffi- 
cult to  be  understood,  and  therefore  require  the 
explanation  of  the  fathers.  It  is  true,  there  be 

*  Constantino's. 


8  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

some  books,  and  especially  some  places  in  these 
books,  that  remain  clouded ;  yet  ever  that  which 
is  most  necessary  to  be  known  is  most  easy ;  and 
that  which  is  most  difficult,  so  far  expounds  itself 
ever,  as  to  tell  us  how  little  it  imports  our  saving 
knowledge.  Hence,  to  infer  a  general  obscurity 
over  all  the  text,  is  a  mere  suggestion  of  the  devil 
to  dissuade  men  from  reading  it,  and  casts  an  as- 
persion of  dishonor  both  upon  the  mercy,  truth, 
and  wisdom  of  God.  We  count  it  no  gentleness 
or  fair  dealing  in  a  man  of  power  amongst  us,  to 
require  strict  and  punctual  obedience,  and  yet 
give  out  all  his  commands  ambiguous  and  ob- 
scure :  we  should  think  he  had  a  plot  upon  us  ; 
certainly  such  commands  were  no  commands,  but 
snares.  The  very  essence  of  truth  is  plainness 
and  brightness;  the  darkness  and  crookedness  is 
our  own.  The  wisdom  of  God  created  under- 
standing, fit  and  proportionable  to  truth,  the  ob- 
ject and  end  of  it,  as  the  eye  to  the  thing  visible. 
If  our  understanding  have  a  film  of  ignorance 
over  it,  or  be  blear  with  gazing  on  other  false  glis- 
terings,  what  is  that  to  truth?  If  we  will  but 
purge  with  sovereign  eye-salve  that  intellectual 
ray  which  God  hath  planted  in  us,  then  we  would 
believe  the  Scriptures  protesting  their  own  plain- 
ness and  perspicuity,  calling  to  them  to  be  in- 
structed, not  only  the  wise  and  learned,  but  the 
simple,  the  poor,  the  babes,  foretelling  an  extraor- 
dinary effusion  of  God's  Spirit  upon  every  age 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.          9 

and  sex,  attributing  to  all  men,  and  requiring  from 
them  the  ability  of  searching,  trying,  examining  all 
things,  and  by  the  Spirit  discerning  that  which  is 
good ;  and  as  the  Scriptures  themselves  pronounce 
their  own  plainness,  so  do  the  fathers  testify  of 

them 

But  let  the  Scriptures  be  hard ;  are  they  more 
hard,  more  crabbed,  more  abstruse,  than  the 
fathers?  He  that  cannot  understand  the  sober, 
plain,  and  unaffected  style  of  the  Scriptures,  will 
be  ten  times  more  puzzled  with  the  knotty  Afri- 
canisms, the  pampered  metaphors,  the  intricate 
and  involved  sentences  of  the  fathers,  besides  the 
fantastic  and  declamatory  flashes,  the  gross-jin- 
gling periods,  which  cannot  but  disturb  and  come 
thwart  a  settled  devotion,  worse  than  the  din  of 
bells  and  rattles. 


IT  is  a  work  good  and  prudent  to  be  able  to 
guide  one  man ;  of  larger  extended  virtue  to 
order  well  one  house ;  but  to  govern  a  nation 
piously  and  justly,  which  only  is  to  say  happily, 
is  for  a  spirit  of  the  greatest  size,  and  divinest 
mettle.  And  certainly  of  no  less  a  mind,  nor  of 
less  excellence  in  another  way,  were  they  who,  by 
writing,  laid  the  solid  and  true  foundations  of  this 
science,  which  being  of  greatest  importance  to  the 
life  of  man,  yet  there  is  no  art  that  hath  been 
more  cankered  in  her  principles,  more  soiled  and 
slubbered  with  aphorisming  pedantry  than  the  art 
1* 


10  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

of  policy;  and  that  most,  where  a  man  would 
think  should  least  be,  in  Christian  commonwealths. 
They  teach  not,  that  to  govern  well,  is  to  train  up 
a  nation  in  true  wisdom  and  virtue,  and  that  which 
springs  from  thence,  magnanimity  (take  heed  of 
that),  and  that  which  is  our  beginning,  regenera- 
tion, and  happiest  end,  likeness  to  God,  which  in 
one  word  we  call  godliness ;  and  that  this  is  the 
true  flourishing  of  a  land,  other  things  follow  as 
the  shadow  does  the  substance  :  to  teach  thus  were 
mere  pulpitry  to  them.  This  is  the  masterpiece 
of  a  modern  politician,  how  to  qualify  and  mould 
the  sufferance  and  subjection  of  the  people  to  the 
length  of  that  foot  that  is  to  tread  on  their  necks ; 
how  rapine  may  serve  itself  with  the  fair  and  hon- 
orable pretences  of  public  good;  how  the  puny 
law  may  be  brought  under  the  wardship  and  con- 
trol of  lust  and  will ;  in  which  attempt,  if  they  fall 
short,  then  must  a  superficial  color  of  reputation, 
by  all  means,  direct  or  indirect,  be  gotten  to  wash 
over  the  unsightly  bruise  of  honor.  To  make 
men  governable  in  this  manner,  their  precepts 
mainly  tend  to  break  a  national  spirit  and  courage, 
by  countenancing  open  riot,  luxury,  and  igno- 
rance, till,  having  thus  disfigured  and  made  men 
beneath  men,  as  Juno  in  the  fable  of  lo,  they 
deliver  up  the  poor  transformed  heifer  of  the  com- 
monwealth to  be  stung  and  vexed  with  the  breeze 
and  goad  of  oppression,  under  the  custody  of  some 
Argus  with  a  hundred  eyes  of  jealousy.  To  be 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.        11 

plainer,  sir,  how  to  solder,  how  to  stop  a  leak,  how 
to  keep  up  the  floating  carcass  of  a  crazy  and  dis- 
eased monarchy  or  state,  betwixt  wind  and  water, 
swimming  still  upon  her  own  dead  lees,  that  now 
is  the  deep  design  of  a  politician. 


A  COMMONWEALTH  ought  to  be  but  as  one  huge 
Christian  personage,  one  mighty  growth  and  stat- 
ure of  an  honest  man,  as  big  and  compact  in  virtue 
as  in  body ;  for  look  what  the  grounds  and  causes 
are  of  single  happiness  to  one  man,  the  same  ye 
shall  find  them  to  a  whole  state,  as  Aristotle,  both 
in  his  Ethics  and  Politics,  from  the  principles  of 
reason,  lays  down :  by  consequence,  therefore,  that 
which  is  good  and  agreeable  to  monarchy  will 
appear  soonest  to  be  so,  by  being  good  and  agree- 
able to  the  true  welfare  of  every  Christian ;  and 
that  which  can  be  justly  proved  hurtful  and  offen- 
sive to  every  true  Christian  will  be  evinced  to  be 
alike  hurtful  to  monarchy :  for  God  forbid  that  we 
should  separate  and  distinguish  the  end  and  good 
of  a  monarch  from  the  end  and  good  of  the  mon- 
archy, or  of  that  from  Christianity 

Seeing  that  the  churchman's  office  is  only  to 
teach  men  the  Christian  faith,  to  exhort  all,  to 
encourage  the  good,  to  admonish  the  bad,  pri- 
vately the  less  offender,  publicly  the  scandalous  and 
stubborn ;  to  censure  and  separate,  from  the  com- 
munion of  Christ's  flock,  the  contagious  and  incor- 


12  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

rigible,  to  receive  with  joy  and  fatherly  compas- 
sion the  penitent:  all  this  must  be  done,  and 
more  than  this  is  beyond  any  church-authority. 
What  is  all  this,  either  here  or  there,  to  the  tem- 
poral regiment  of  weal  public,  whether  it  be  pop- 
ular, princely,  or  monarchical?  Where  doth  it 
entrench  upon  the  temporal  governor  ?  where  does 
it  come  in  his  walk  ?  where  doth  it  make  inroad 
upon  his  jurisdiction  ?  Indeed,  if  the  minister's 
part  be  rightly  discharged,  it  renders  him  the 
people  more  conscionable,  quiet,  and  easy  to  be 
governed ;  if  otherwise,  his  life  and  doctrine  will 
declare  him.  If,  therefore,  the  constitution  of  the 
Church  be  already  set  down  by  divine  prescript, 
as  all  sides  confess,  then  can  she  not  be  a  hand- 
maid to  wait  on  civil  commodities  and  respects ; 
and  if  the  nature  and  limits  of  church-discipline 
be  such  as  are  either  helpful  to  all  political  estates 
indifferently,  or  have  no  particular  relation  to  any, 
then  is  there  no  necessity,  nor  indeed  possibility, 
of  linking  the  one  with  the  other  in  a  special  con- 
formation  

Well  knows  every  wise  nation  that  their  liberty 
consists  in  manly  and  honest  labors,  in  sobriety 
and  rigorous  honor  to  the  marriage-bed,  which  in 
both  sexes  should  be  bred  up  from  chaste  hopes  to 
loyal  enjoyments;  and  when  the  people  slacken, 
and  fall  to  looseness  and  riot,  then  do  they  as 
much  as  if  they  laid  down  their  necks  for  some 
wild  tyrant  to  get  up  and  ride.  Thus  learnt  Cy- 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.         13 

rus  to  tame  the  Lydians,  whom  by  arms  he  could 
not  whilst  they  kept  themselves  from  luxury;  with 
one  easy  proclamation  to  set  up  stews,  dancing, 
feasting,  and  dicing,  he  made  them  soon  his  slaves. 
I  know  not  what  drift  the  prelates  had,  whose 
brokers  they  were  to  prepare,  and  supple  us  either 
for  a  foreign  invasion  or  domestic  oppression :  but 
this  I  am  sure,  they  took  the  ready  way  to  despoil 
us  both  of  manhood  and  grace  at  once,  and  that 
in  the  shamefullest  and  ungodliest  manner,  upon 
that  day  which  God's  law,  and  even  our  own  rea- 
son, hath  consecrated,  that  we  might  have  one  day 
at  least  of  seven  set  apart  wherein  to  examine  and 
increase  our  knowledge  of  God,  to  meditate  and 
commune  of  our  faith,  our  hope,  our  eternal  city 
in  heaven,  and  to  quicken  withal  the  study  and 
exercise  of  charity ;  at  such  a  time  that  men 
should  be  plucked  from  their  soberest  and  saddest 
thoughts,  and  by  bishops,  the  pretended  fathers  of 
the  Church,  instigated,  by  public  edict,  and  with 
earnest  endeavor  pushed  forward  to  gaming,  jig- 
ging, wassailing,  and  mixed  dancing,  is  a  horror 
to  think!  Thus  did  the  reprobate  hireling  priest 
Balaam  seek  to  subdue  the  Israelites  to  Moab,  if 
not  by  force,  then  by  this  devilish  policy,  to  draw 
them  from  the  sanctuary  of  God  to  the  luxurious 
and  ribald  feasts  of  Baal-peor.  Thus  have  they 
trespassed  not  only  against  the  monarchy  of  Eng- 
land, but  of  Heaven  also,  as  others,  I  doubt  not, 
can  prosecute  against  them. 


14  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

THE  emulation  that  under  the  old  law  was  in 
the  king  towards  the  priest  is  now  so  come  about 
in  the  gospel,  that  all  the  danger  is  to  be  feared 
from  the  priest  to  the  king.  Whilst  the  priest's 
office  in  the  law  was  set  out  with  an  exterior  lus- 
tre of  pomp  and  glory,  kings  were  ambitious  to 
be  priests;  now  priests,  not  perceiving  the  heaven- 
ly brightness  and  inward  splendor  of  their  more 
glorious  evangelic  ministry,  with  as  great  ambition 
affect  to  be  kings,  as  in  all  their  courses  is  easy 
to  be  observed.  Their  eyes  ever  eminent  upon 
worldly  matters,  their  desires  ever  thirsting  after 
worldly  employments,  instead  of  diligent  and  fer- 
vent study  in  the  Bible,  they  covet  to  be  expert 
in  canons  and  decretals,  which  may  enable  them 
to  judge  and  interpose  in  temporal  causes,  how- 
ever pretended  ecclesiastical.  Do  they  not  hoard 
up  pelf,  seek  to  be  potent  in  secular  strength,  in 
state  affairs,  in  lands,  lordships,  and  domains,  to 
sway  and  carry  all  before  them  in  high  courts  and 
privy-councils,  to  bring  into  their  grasp  the  high 
and  principal  offices  of  the  kingdom  ?  .  .  .  . 

But  ever  blessed  be  He,  and  ever  glorified,  that 
from  his  high  watch-tower  in  the  heavens,  discern- 
ing the  crooked  ways  of  perverse  and  cruel  men, 
hath  hitherto  maimed  and  infatuated  all  their  dam- 
nable inventions,  and  deluded  their  great  wizards 
with  a  delusion  fit  for  fools  and  children :  had  God 
been  so  minded,  he  could  have  sent  a  spirit  of  mu- 
tiny amongst  us,  as  he  did  between  Abimelech  and 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.         15 

the  Sechemites,  to  have  made  our  funerals,  and 
slain  heaps  more  in  number  than  the  miserable 
surviving  remnant;  but  he,  when  we  least  de- 
served, sent  out  a  gentle  gale  and  message  of 
peace  from  the  wings  of  those  his  cherubims  that 
fan  his  mercy-seat.  Nor  shall  the  wisdom,  the 
moderation,  the  Christian  piety,  the  constancy,  of 
our  nobility  and  commons  of  England,  be  ever 
forgotten,  whose  calm  and  temperate  connivance 
could  sit  still  and  smile  out  the  stormy  bluster  of 
men  more  audacious  and  precipitant  than  of  solid 
and  deep  reach,  until  their  own  fury  had  run  it- 
self out  of  breath,  assailing  by  rash  and  heady 
approaches  the  impregnable  situation  of  our  liber- 
ty and  safety,  that  laughed  such  weak  enginery  to 
scorn,  such  poor  drifts  to  make  a  national  war  of  a 
surplice  brabble,  a  tippet  scuffle,  and  engage  the 
untainted  honor  of  English  knighthood  to  unfurl 
the  streaming  red  cross,  or  to  rear  the  horrid 
standard  of  those  fatal  guly  dragons,  for  so  un- 
worthy a  purpose. as  to  force  upon  their  fellow- 
subjects  that  which  themselves  are  weary  of,  the 
skeleton  of  a  mass-book.  Nor  must  the  patience, 
the  fortitude,  the  firm  obedience,  of  the  nobles  and 
people  of  Scotland,  striving  against  manifold  prov- 
ocations, nor  must  their  sincere  and  moderate 
proceedings  hitherto,  be  unremembered,  to  the 
shameful  conviction  of  all  their  detractors. 

Go  on  both  hand  in  hand,  O  nations,  never  to 
be  disunited;  be  the  praise  and  the  heroic  song 


16  FROM   THE   TREATISE 

of  all  posterity ;  merit  this,  but  seek  only  virtue, 
not  to  extend  your  limits,  (for  what  needs  to  win 
a  fading  triumphant  laurel  out  of  the  tears  of 
wretched  men?)  but  to  settle  the  pure  worship 
of  God  in  his  Church,  and  justice  in  the  state : 
then  shall  the  hardest  difficulties  smooth  out  them- 
selves before  ye  ;  envy  shall  sink  to  hell,  craft  and 
malice  be  confounded,  whether  it  be  homebred 
mischief  or  outlandish  cunning:  yea,  other  na- 
tions will  then  covet  to  serve  ye,  for  lordship  and 
victory  are  but  the  pages  of  justice  and  virtue. 
Commit  securely  to  true  wisdom  the  vanquishing 
and  uncasing  of  craft  and  subtlety,  which  are  but 
her  two  runagates :  join  your  invincible  might  to 
do  worthy  and  godlike  deeds ;  and  then  he  that 
seeks  to  break  your  union,  a  cleaving  curse  be  his 

inheritance  to  all  generations 

Thus  then  we  see  that  our  ecclesiastical  and 
political  choices  may  consent  and  sort  as  well 
together  without  any  rupture  in  the  state,  as 
Christians  and  freeholders.  But  as  for  honor, 
that  ought  indeed  to  be  different  and  distinct,  as 
either  office  looks  a  several  way ;  the  minister 
whose  calling  and  end  is  spiritual  ought  to  be  hon- 
ored as  a  father  and  physician  to  the  soul  (if  he 
be  found  to  be  so),  with  a  son-like  and  disciple-like 
reverence,  which  is  indeed  the  dearest  and  most 
affectionate  honor,  most  to  be  desired  by  a  wise 
man,  and  such  as  will  easily  command  a  free  and 
plentiful  provision  of  outward  necessaries,  without 
his  further  care  of  this  world. 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.         17 

The  magistrate,  whose  charge  is  to  see  to  our 
persons  and  estates,  is  to  be  honored  with  a  more 
elaborate  and  personal  courtship,  with  large  sala- 
ries and  stipends,  that  he  himself  may  abound  in 
those  things  whereof  his  legal  justice  and  watchful 
care  give  us  the  quiet  enjoyment.  And  this  dis- 
tinction of  honor  will  bring  forth  a  seemly  and 
graceful  uniformity  over  all  the  kingdom. 

Then  shall  the  nobles  possess  all  the  dignities 
and  offices  of  temporal  honor  to  themselves,  sole 
lords  without  the  improper  mixture  of  scholastic 
and  pusillanimous  upstarts;  the  Parliament  shall 
void  her  upper  house  of  the  same  annoyances ; 
the  common  and  civil  laws  shall  be  both  set  free, 
the  former  from  the  control,  the  other  from  the 
mere  vassalage  and  copyhold  of  the  clergy. 

And  whereas  temporal  laws  rather  punish  men 
when  they  have  transgressed  than  form  them  to 
be  such  as  should  transgress  seldomest,  we  may 
conceive  great  hopes,  through  the  showers  of  di- 
vine benediction  watering  the  unmolested  and 
watchful  pains  of  the  ministry,  that  the  whole  in- 
heritance of  God  will  grow  up  so  straight  and 
blameless,  that  the  civil  magistrate  may  with  far 
less  toil  and  difficulty,  and  far  more  ease  and  de- 
light, steer  the  tall  and  goodly  vessel  of  the  com- 
monwealth through  all  the  gusts  and  tides  of  the 
world's  mutability. 

We  must  not  run,  they  say,  into  sudden  ex- 
tremes. This  is  a  fallacious  rule,  unless  under- 


18  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

stood  only  of  the  actions  of  virtue  about  things 
indifferent :  for  if  it  be  found  that  those  two  ex- 
tremes be  vice  and  virtue,  falsehood  and  truth,  the 
greater  extremity  of  virtue  and  superlative  truth 
we  run  into,  the  more  virtuous  and  the  more  wise 
we  become ;  and  he  that,  flying  from  degenerate 
and  traditional  corruption,  fears  to  shoot  himself 
too  far  into  the  meeting  embrace  of  a  divinely 
warranted  reformation,  had  better  not  have  run 
at  all 

Let  us  not  dally  with  God  when  he  offers  us 
a  full  blessing,  to  take  as  much  of  it  as  we  think 
will  serve  our  ends,  and  turn  him  back  the  rest 
upon  his  hands,  lest  in  his  anger  he  snatch  all 
from  us  again 

But  in  the  evangelical  and  reformed  use  of  this 
sacred  censure,*  no  such  prostitution,  no  such  Is- 
cariotical  drifts,  are  to  be  doubted,  as  that  spiritual 
doom  and  sentence  should  invade  worldly  posses- 
sion, which  is  the  rightful  lot  and  portion  even  of 
the  wickedest  men,  as  frankly  bestowed  upon  them 
by  the  all-dispensing  bounty  as  rain  and  sunshine. 
No,  no,  it  seeks  not  to  bereave  or  destroy  the 
body ;  it  seeks  to  save  the  soul  by  humbling  the 
body,  not  by  imprisonment,  or  pecuniary  mulct, 
much  less  by  stripes,  or  bonds,  or  disinheritance, 
but  by  fatherly  admonishment  and  Christian  re- 
buke, to  cast  it  into  godly  sorrow,  whose  end  is 
joy,  and  ingenuous  bashfulness  to  sin :  if  that  can- 

*  Excommunication. 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.         19 

not  be  wrought,  then  as  a  tender  mother  takes  her 
child  and  holds  it  over  the  pit  with  scaring  words, 
that  it  may  learn  to  fear  where  danger  is ;  so  doth 
excommunication  as  dearly  and  as  freely,  without 
money,  use  her  wholesome  and  saving  terrors: 
she  is  instant,  she  beseeches,  by  all  the  dear  and 
sweet  promises  of  salvation  she  entices  and  wooes ; 
by  all  the  threatenings  and  thunders  of  the  law, 
and  rejected  gospel,  she  charges  and  adjures :  this 
is  all  her  armory,  her  munition,  her  artillery; 
then  she  awaits  with  long-sufferance,  and  yet  ar- 
dent zeal.  In  brief,  there  is  no  act  in  all  the 
errand  of  God's  ministers  to  mankind  wherein 
passes  more  lover-like  contestation  between  Christ 
and  the  soul  of  a  regenerate  man  lapsing,  than  be- 
fore, and  in,  and  after  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation. As  for  the  fogging  proctorage  of  money, 
with  such  an  eye  as  struck  Gehazi  with  leprosy 
and  Simon  Magus  with  a  curse,  so  does  she  look, 
and  so  threaten  her  fiery  whip  against  that  bank- 
ing den  of  thieves  that  dare  thus  baffle,  and  buy 
and  sell  the  awful  and  majestic  wrinkles  of  her 
brow.  He  that  is  rightly  and  apostolically  sped 
with  her  invisible  arrow,  if  he  can  be  at  peace  in 
his  soul,  and  not  smell  within  him  the  brimstone 
of  hell,  may  have  fair  leave  to  tell  all  his  bags 
over  undiminished  of  the  least  farthing,  may  eat 
his  dainties,  drink  his  wine,  use  his  delights,  enjoy 
his  lands  and  liberties,  not  the  least  skin  raised, 
not  the  least  hair  misplaced,  for  all  that  excom- 


20  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

munication  has  done:  much  more  may  a  king 
enjoy  his  rights  and  prerogatives  undeflowered, 
untouched,  and  be  as  absolute  and  complete  a 
king  as  all  his  royalties  and  revenues  can  make 
him 

O  sir,  I  do  now  feel  myself  inwrapped  on  the 
sudden  into  those  mazes  and  labyrinths  of  dread- 
ful and  hideous  thoughts,  that  which  way  to  get 
out,  or  which  way  to  end,  I  know  not,  unless  I 
turn  mine  eyes,  and  with  your  help  lift  up  my 
hands  to  that  eternal  and  propitious  throne,  where 
nothing  is  readier  than  grace  and  refuge  to  the 
distresses  of  mortal  suppliants :  and  it  were  a 
shame  to  leave  these  serious  thoughts  less  piously 
than  the  heathen  were  wont  to  conclude  their 
graver  discourses. 

Thou,  therefore,  that  sittest  in  light  and  glory- 
unapproachable,  Parent  of  angels  and  men  !  next, 
thee  I  implore,  Omnipotent  King,  Redeemer  of 
that  lost  remnant,  whose  nature  thou  didst  as- 
sume, ineffable  and  everlasting  Love!  and  thou, 
the  third  subsistence  of  Divine  infinitude,  illumin- 
ing Spirit,  the  joy  and  solace  of  created  things ! 
one  Tripersonal  Godhead !  look  upon  this  thy  poor 
and  almost  spent  and  expiring  Church,  leave  her 
not  thus  a  prey  to  these  importunate  wolves  that 
wait  and  think  long  till  they  devour  thy  tender 
flock;  these  wild  boars  that  have  broke  into  thy 
vineyard,  and  left  the  print  of  their  polluting  hoofs 
on  the  souls  of  thy  servants.  O,  let  them  not 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.        21 

bring  about  their  damned  designs,  that  stand  now 
at  the  entrance  of  the  bottomless  pit,  expecting 
the  watchword  to  open  and  let  out  those  dread- 
ful locusts  and  scorpions,  to  reinvolve  us  in  that 
pitchy  cloud  of  infernal  darkness,  where  we  shall 
never  more  see  the  sun  of  thy  truth  again,  never 
hope  for  the  cheerful  dawn,  never  more  hear  the 
bird  of  morning  sing !  Be  moved  with  pity  at  the 
afflicted  state  of  this  our  shaken  monarchy,  that 
now  lies  laboring  under  her  throes  and  struggling 
against  the  grudges  of  more  dreaded  calamities. 

O  thou,  that,  after  the  impetuous  rage  of  five 
bloody  inundations,  and  the  succeeding  sword  of 
intestine  war,  soaking  the  land  in  her  own  gore, 
didst  pity  the  sad  and  ceaseless  revolution  of  our 
swift  and  thick-coming  sorrows ;  when  we  were 
quite  breathless,  of  thy  free  grace  didst  motion 
peace  and  terms  of  covenant  with  us  ;  and,  having 
first  wellnigh  freed  us  from  Antichristian  thraldom, 
didst  build  up  this  Britannic  empire  to  a  glorious 
and  enviable  height,  with  all  her  daughter-islands 
about  her;  stay  us  in  this  felicity,  let  not  the 
obstinacy  of  our  half-obedience  and  will-worship 
bring  forth  that  viper  of  sedition,  that  for  these 
fourscore  years  hath  been  breeding  to  eat  through 
the  entrails  of  our  peace ;  but  let  her  cast  her 
abortive  spawn  without  the  danger  of  this  travail- 
ing and  throbbing  kingdom :  that  we  may  still  re- 
member, in  our  solemn  thanksgivings,  how  for  us 
the  Northern  Ocean  even  to  the  frozen  Thule  was 


22  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

scattered  with  the  proud  shipwrecks  of  the  Span- 
ish Armada,  and  the  very  maw  of  hell  ransacked, 
and  made  to  give  up  her  concealed  destruction, 
ere  she  could  vent  it  in  that  horrible  and  damned 
blast. 

O,  how  much  more  glorious  will  those  former 
deliverances  appear,  when  we  shall  know  them 
not  only  to  have  saved  us  from  greatest  miseries 
past,  but  to  have  reserved  us  for  greatest  hap- 
piness to  come  !  Hitherto  thou  hast  but  freed  us, 
and  that  not  fully,  from  the  unjust  and  tyrannous 
claim  of  thy  foes ;  now  unite  us  entirely,  and 
appropriate  us  to  thyself;  tie  us  -everlastingly  in 
willing  homage  to  the  prerogative  of  thy  eternal 
throne. 

And  now  we  know,  O  thou  our  most  certain 
hope  and  defence,  that  thine  enemies  have  been 
consulting  all  the  sorceries  of  the  great  whore, 
and  have  joined  their  plots  with  that  sad  intelli- 
gencing  tyrant  that  mischiefs  the  world  with  his 
mines  of  Ophir,  and  lies  thirsting  to  revenge  his 
naval  ruins  that  have  larded  our  seas:  but  let 
them  all  take  counsel  together,  and  let  it  come 
to  naught;  let  them  decree,  and  do  thou  cancel 
it ;  let  them  gather  themselves,  and  be  scattered ; 
let  them  embattle  themselves,  and  be  broken  ; 
let  them  embattle,  and  be  broken,  for  thou  art 
with  us. 

Then,  amidst  the  hymns  and  hallelujahs  of 
saints,  some  one  may  perhaps  be  heard  offering 


OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.        23 

at  high  strains  in  new  and  lofty  measure  to  sing 
and  celebrate  thy  divine  mercies  and  marvellous 
judgments  in  this  land  throughout  all  ages ; 
whereby  this  great  and  warlike  nation,  instructed 
and  inured  to  the  fervent  and  continual  practice 
of  truth  and  righteousness,  and  casting  far  from 
her  the  rags  of  her  whole  vices,  may  press  on 
hard  to  that  high  and  happy  emulation  to  be 
found  the  soberest,  wisest,  and  most  Christian  peo- 
ple at  that  day  when  thou,  the  eternal  and  shortly 
expected  King,  shalt  open  the  clouds  to  judge  the 
several  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and,  distributing 
national  honors  and  rewards  to  religious  and  just 
commonwealths,  shalt  put  an  end  to  all  earthly 
tyrannies,  proclaiming  thy  universal  and  mild 
monarchy  through  heaven  and  earth,  where  they 
undoubtedly,  that  by  their  labors,  counsels,  and 
prayers  have  been  earnest  for  the  common  good 
of  religion  and  their  country,  shall  receive,  above 
the  inferior  orders  of  the  blessed,  the  regal  addition 
of  principalities,  legions,  and  thrones  into  their 
glorious  titles,  and  in  supereminence  of  beatific 
vision,  progressing  the  dateless  and  irrevoluble 
circle  of  eternity,  shall  clasp  inseparable  hands 
with,  joy  and  bliss,  in  overmeasure  forever. 

But  they  contrary,  that  by  the  impairing  and 
diminution  of  the  true  faith,  the  distresses  and 
servitude  of  their  country,  aspire  to  high  dignity, 
rule,  and  promotion  here,  after  a  shameful  end  in 
this  life  (which  God  grant  them)  shall  be  thrown 


24       OF  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND. 

down  eternally  into  the  darkest  and  deepest  gulf 
of  hell,  where,  under  the  despiteful  control,  the 
trample  and  spurn  of  all  the  other  damned,  that 
in  the  anguish  of  their  torture  shall  have  no  other 
ease  than  to  exercise  a  raving  and  hestial  tyranny 
over  them  as  their  slaves  and  negroes,  they  shall 
remain  in  -that  plight  forever,  the  basest,  the  low- 
ermost, the  most  dejected,  most  underfoot,  and 
down-trodden  vassals  of  perdition. 


FROM  THE   TREATISE 

OF   PRELATICAL   EPISCOPACY. 

tF  it  be  of  divine  constitution,  to  satisfy 
us  folly  in  that,  the  Scripture  only  is 
able,  it  being  the  only  book  left  us  of 
divine  authority,  not  in  anything  more 
divine  than  in  the  all-sufficiency  it  hath  to  fur- 
nish us,  as  with  all  other  spiritual  knowledge,  so 
with  this  in  particular,  setting  out  to  us  a  perfect 
man  of  God,  accomplished  to  all  the  good  works 

of  his  charge To  verify  that  which  St.  Paul 

foretold  of  succeeding  times,  when  men  began 
to  have  itching  ears,  then,  not  contented  with  the 
plentiful  and  wholesome  fountains  of  the  Gospel, 
they  began  after  their  own  lusts  to  heap  to  them- 
selves teachers,  and  as  if  the  Divine  Scripture  want- 
ed a  supplement,  and  were  to  be  eked  out,  they 
cannot  think  any  doubt  resolved,  and  any  doctrine 
confirmed,  unless  they  run  to  that  indigested  heap 
and  fry  of  authors  which  they  call  antiquity. 
Whatsoever  time,  or  the  heedless  hand  of  blind 
chance,  hath  drawn  down  from  of  old  to  this  pres- 
2 


26  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

ent,  in  her  huge  drag-net,  whether  fish  or  sea- 
weed, shells  or  shrubs,  unpicked,  unchosen,  those 
are  the  fathers 

How  can  they  bring  satisfaction  from  such  an 
author,  to  whose  every  essence  the  reader  must  be 
fain  to  contribute  his  own  understanding?  Had 
God  ever  intended  that  we  should  have  sought 
any  part  of  useful  instruction  from  Ignatius,  doubt- 
less he  would  not  have  so  ill  provided  for  our 
knowledge  as  to  send  him  to  our  hands  in  this 
broken  and  disjointed  plight ;  and  if  he  intended 
no  such  thing,  we  do  injuriously  in  thinking  to 
taste  better  the  pure  evangelic  manna,  by  season- 
ing our  mouths  with  the  tainted  scraps  and  frag- 
ments of  an  unknown  table,  and  searching  among 
the  verminous  and  polluted  rags  dropped  over- 
worn from  the  toiling  shoulders  of  time,  with 
these  deformedly  to  quilt  and  interlace  the  entire, 
the  spotless,  and  undecaying  robe  of  truth,  the 
daughter  not  of  time,  but  of  Heaven,  only  bred 
up  here  below  in  Christian  hearts,  between  two 
grave  and  holy  nurses,  the  doctrine  and  discipline 
of  the  Gospel 

He  that  thinks  it  the  part  of  a  well-learned  man 
to  have  read  diligently  the  ancient  stories  of  the 
Church,  and  to  be  no  stranger  in  the  volumes  of 
the  fathers,  shall  have  all  judicious  men  consent- 
ing with  him;  not  hereby  to  control  and  new- 
fangle  the  Scripture,  God  forbid !  but  to  mark  how 
corruption  and  apostasy  crept  in  by  degrees,  and 


OF  PRELATICAL   EPISCOPACY.  27 

to  gather  up  wherever  we  find  the  remaining 
sparks  of  original  truth,  wherewith  to  stop  the 
mouths  of  our  adversaries,  and  to  bridle  them 
with  their  own  curb,  who  willingly  pass  by  that 
which  is  orthodoxal  in  them,  and  studiously  cull 
out  that  which  is  commentitious,  and  best  for  their 
turns,  not  weighing  the  fathers  in  the  balance  of 
Scripture,  but  Scripture  in  the  balance  of  the 
fathers.  If  we,  therefore,  making  first  the  Gospel 
our  rule  and  oracle,  shall  take  the  good  which  we 
light  on  in  the  fathers,  and  set  it  to  oppose  the 
evil  which  other  men  seek  from  them,  in  this  way 
of  skirmish  we  shall  easily  master  all  superstition 
and  false  doctrine ;  but  if  we  turn  this  our  discreet 
and  wary  usage  of  them  into  a  blind  devotion  to- 
wards them,  and  whatsoever  we  find  written  by 
them,  we  both  forsake  our  own  grounds  and  rea- 
sons which  led  us  at  first  to  part  from  Rome,  that 
is,  to  hold  to  the  Scriptures  against  all  antiquity ; 
we  remove  our  cause  into  our  adversaries'  own 
court,  and  take  up  there  those  cast  principles 
which  will  soon  cause  us  to  solder  up  with  them 
again ;  inasmuch  as,  believing  antiquity  for  itself  in 
any  one  point,  we  bring  an  engagement  upon  our- 
selves of  assenting  to  all  that  it  charges  upon  us. 


FROM  THE 

REASON    OF   CHURCH   GOVERNMENT 
URGED   AGAINST   PRELATY. 

N  the  publishing  of  human  laws,  which 
for  the  most  part  aim  not  beyond  the 
good  of  civil  society,  to  set  them  barely 
forth  to  the  people  without  reason  or 
preface,  like  a  physical  prescript,  or  only  with 
threatenings,  as  it  were  a  lordly  command,  in 
the  judgment  of  Plato  was  thought  to  be  done 
neither  generously  nor  wisely.  His  advice  was, 
seeing  that  persuasion  certainly  is  a  more  win- 
ning and  more  manlike  way  to  keep  men  in  obe- 
dience than  fear,  that  to  such  laws  as  were  of 
principal  moment,  there  should  be  used  as  an  in- 
duction some  well-tempered  discourse,  showing 
how  good,  how  gainful,  how  happy  it  must  needs 
be  to  live  according  to  honesty  and  justice ;  which 
being  uttered  with  those  native  colors  and  graces 
of  speech,  as  true  eloquence,  the  daughter  of  vir- 
tue, can  best  bestow  upon  her  mother's  praises, 
would  so  incite,  and  in  a  manner  charm,  the  mul- 


REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT.      29 

titude  into  the  love  of  that  which  is  really  good, 
as  to  embrace  it  ever  after,  not  of  custom  and 
awe,  which  most  men  do,  but  of  choice  and  pur- 
pose, with  true  and  constant  delight.  But  this 
practice  we  may  learn  from  a  better  and  more 
ancient  authority  than  any  heathen  writer  hath  to 
give  us;  and,  indeed,  being  a  point  of  so  high  wis- 
dom and  worth,  how  could  it  be  but  we  should 
find  it  in  that  book  within  whose  sacred  context 
all  wisdom  is  unfolded?  Moses,  therefore,  the 
only  lawgiver  that  we  can  believe  to  have  been 
visibly  taught  of  God,  knowing  how  vain  it  was 
to  write  laws  to  men  whose  hearts  were  not  first 
seasoned  with  the  knowledge  of  God  and  of  his 
works,  began  from  the  book  of  Genesis,  as  a  pro- 
logue to  his  laws  ;  which  Josephus  right  well  hath 
noted:  that  the  nation  of  the  Jews,  reading  there- 
in the  universal  goodness  of  God  to  all  creatures 
in  the  creation,  and  his  peculiar  favor  to  them 
in  his  election  of  Abraham,  their  ancestor,  from 
whom  they  could  derive  so  many  blessings  upon 
themselves,  might  be  moved  to  obey  sincerely,  by 
knowing  so  good  a  reason  of  their  obedience.  If, 
then,  in  the  administration  of  civil  justice,  and 
under  the  obscurity  of  ceremonial  rites,  such  care 
was  had  by  the  wisest  of  the  heathen,  and  by 
Moses  among  the  Jews,  to  instruct  them  at  least 
in  a  general  reason  of  that  government  to  which 
their  subjection  was  required,  how  much  more 
ought  the  members  of  the  Church,  under  the 


30      REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

Gospel,  seek  to  inform  their  understanding  in  the 
reason  of  that  government  which  the  Church 
claims  to  have  over  them!  Especially  for  that 
Church  hath  in  her  immediate  cure  those  inner 
parts  and  affections  of  the  mind,  where  the  seat 
of  reason  is  having  power  to  examine  our  spiritual 
knowledge,  and  to  demand  from  us,  in  God's  he- 
half,  a  service  entirely  reasonable. 


THERE  is  not  that  thing  in  the  world  of  more 
grave  and  urgent  importance  throughout  the 
whole  life  of  man  than  is  discipline.  What  need 
I  instance !  He  that  hath  read  with  judgment  of 
nations  and  commonwealths,  of  cities  and  camps, 
of  peace  and  war,  sea  and  land,  will  readily  agree 
that  the  flourishing  and  decaying  of  all  civil  so- 
cieties, all  the  moments  and  turnings  of  human 
occasions,  are  moved  to  and  fro  as  upon  the  axle 
of  discipline.  So  that  whatsoever  power  or  sway 
in  mortal  things  weaker  men  have  attributed  to 
fortune,  I  durst  with  more  confidence  (the  honor 
of  Divine  Providence  ever  saved)  ascribe  either 
to  the  vigor  or  the  slackness  of  discipline.  Nor  is 
there  any  sociable  perfection  in  this  life,  civil  or  sa- 
cred, that  can  be  above  discipline  ;  but  she  is  that 
which  with  her  musical  cords  preserves  and  holds 
all  the  parts  thereof  together.  Hence  in  those 
perfect  armies  of  Cyrus  in  Xenophon,  and  Scipio 
in  the  Roman  stories,  the  excellence  of  military 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  31 

skill  was  esteemed,  not  by  the  not  needing,  but  by 
the  readiest  submitting  to  the  edicts  of  their  com- 
mander. And  certainly  discipline  is  not  only  the 
removal  of  disorder ;  but  if  any  visible  shape  can 
be  given  to  divine  things,  the  very  visible  shape 
and  image  of  virtue,  whereby  she  is  not  only  seen 
in  the  regular  gestures  and  motions  of  her  heaven- 
ly paces  as  she  walks,  but  also  makes  the  harmony 
of  her  voice  audible  to  mortal  ears.  Yea,  the 
angels  themselves,  in  whom  no  disorder  is  feared, 
as  the  apostle  that  saw  them  in  his  rapture  de- 
scribes, are  distinguished  and  quaternioned  into 
their  celestial  princedoms  and  satrapies,  according 
as  God  himself  has  writ  his  imperial  decrees 
through  the  great  provinces  of  heaven.  The 
state  also  of  the  blessed  in  paradise,  though  never 
so  perfect,  is  not  therefore  left  without  discipline, 
whose  golden  surveying-reed  marks  out  and  meas- 
ures every  quarter  and  circuit  of  New  Jerusalem. 
Yet  is  it  not  to  be  conceived  that  those  eternal 
effluences  of  sanctity  and  love  in  the  glorified 
saints  should  by  this  means  be  confined  and  cloyed 
with  repetition  of  that  which  is  prescribed,  but 
that  our  happiness  may  orb  itself  into  a  thousand 
vagancies  of  glory  and  delight,  and  with  a  kind  of 
eccentrical  equation  be,  as  it  were,  an  invariable 
planet  of  joy  and  felicity ;  how  much  less  can  we 
believe  that  God  would  leave  his  frail  and  feeble, 
though  not  less  beloved  Church  here  below,  to  the 
perpetual  stumble  of  conjecture  and  disturbance 


32      REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

in  this  our  dark  voyage,  without  the  card  and 
compass  of  discipline  ?  Which  is  so  hard  to  be  of 
man's  making,  that  we  may  see  even  in  the  guid- 
ance of  a  civil  state  to  worldly  happiness,  it  is 
not  for  every  learned  or  every  wise  man,  though 
many  of  them  consult  in  common,  to  invent  or 
frame  a  discipline :  but  if  it  be  at  all  the  work  of 
man,  it  must  be  of  such  a  one  as  is  a  true  knower 
of  himself,  and  in  whom  contemplation  and  prac- 
tice, wit,  prudence,  fortitude,  and  eloquence,  must 
be  rarely  met,  both  to  comprehend  the  hidden 
causes  of  things,  and  span  in  his  thoughts  all  the 
various  effects  that  passion  or  complexion  can 
work  in  man's  nature ;  and  hereto  must  his  hand 
be  at  defiance  with  gain,  and  his  heart  in  all  vir- 
tues heroic ;  so  far  is  it  from  the  ken  of  these 
wretched  projectors  of  ours,  that  bescrawl  their 
pamphlets  every  day  with  new  forms  of  govern- 
ment for  our  Church.  And  therefore  all  the 
ancient  lawgivers  were  either  truly  inspired,  as 
Moses,  or  were  such  men  as  with  authority  enough 
might  give  it  out  to  be'  so,  as  Minos,  Lycurgus, 
Numa,  because  they  wisely  forethought  that  men 
would  never  quietly  submit  to  such  a  discipline  as 
had  not  more  of  God's  hand  in  it  than  man's.  .  .  . 
Public  preaching  indeed  is  the  gift  of  the  Spirit, 
working  as  best  seems  to  his  secret  will ;  but  dis- 
cipline is  the  practic  work  of  preaching  directed 
and  applied,  as  is  most  requisite,  to  particular 
duty ;  without  which  it  were  all  one  to  the  benefit 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  33 

of  souls,  as  it  would  be  to  the  cure  of  bodies,  if  all 
the  physicians  in  London  should  get  into  the  sev- 
eral pulpits  of  the  city,  and,  assembling  all  the 
diseased  in  every  parish,  should  begin  a  learned 
lecture  of  pleurisies,  palsies,  lethargies,  to  which 
perhaps  none  there  present  were  inclined ;  and  so, 
without  so  much  as  feeling  one  pulse,  or  giving 
the  least  order  to  any  skilful  apothecary,  should 
dismiss  them  from  time  to  time,  some  groaning, 
some  languishing,  some  expiring,  with  this  only 
charge,  to  look  well  to  themselves,  and  do  as  they 

hear 

Did  God  take  such  delight  in  measuring  out  the 
pillars,  arches,  and  doors  of  a  material  temple  ? 
Was  he  so  punctual  and  circumspect  in  lavers, 
altars,  and  sacrifices  soon  after  to  be  abrogated, 
lest  any  of  these  should  have  been  made  contrary 
to  his  mind?  Is  not  a  far  more  perfect  work 
more  agreeable  to  his  perfections  in  the  most  per- 
fect state  of  the  Church  Militant,  the  new  alliance 
of  God  to  man  ?  Should  not  he  rather  now  by 
his  own  prescribed  discipline  have  cast  his  line 
and  level  upon  the  soul  of  man,  which  is  his 
rational  temple,  and,  by  the  divine  square  and 
compass  thereof,  form  and  regenerate  in  us  the 
lovely  shapes  of  virtues  and  graces,  the  sooner  to 
edify  and  accomplish  that  immortal  stature  of 
Christ's  body,  which  is  his  Church,  in  all  her  glori- 
ous lineaments  and  proportions?  And  that  this 
indeed  God  hath  done  for  us  in  the  Gospel  we 
2*  c 


34     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

shall  see  with  open  eyes,  not  under  a  veil.  We 
may  pass  over  the  history  of  the  Acts  and  other 
places,  turning  only  to  those  epistles  of  St.  Paul 
to  Timothy  and  Titus ;  where  the  spiritual  eye 
may  discern  more  goodly  and  gracefully  erected, 
than  all  the  magnificence  of  temple  or  tabernacle, 
such  a  heavenly  structure  of  evangelical  discipline, 
so  diffusive  of  knowledge  and  charity  to  the  pros- 
perous increase  and  growth  of  the  Church,  that  it 
cannot  be  wondered  if  that  elegant  and  artful 
symmetry  of  the  promised  new  temple  in  Ezekiel, 
and  all  those  sumptuous  things  under  the  law, 
were  made  to  signify  the  inward  beauty  and  splen- 
dor of  the  Christian  Church  thus  governed 

And  therefore,  if  God  afterward  gave  or  per- 
mitted this  insurrection  of  episcopacy,  it  is  to  be 
feared  he  did  it  in  his  wrath,  as  he  gave  the 
Israelites  a  king.  With  so  good  a  will  doth  he 
use  to  alter  his  own  chosen  government  once  es- 
tablished. For  mark  whether  this  rare  device  of 
man's  brain,  thus  preferred  before  the  ordinance 
of  God,  had  better  success  than  fleshly  wisdom, 
not  counselling  with  God,  is  wont  to  have.  So 
far  was  it  from  removing  schism,  that,  if  schism 
parted  the  congregations  before,  now  it  rent  and 
mangled,  now  it  raged.  Heresy  begat  heresy 
with  a  certain  monstrous  haste  of  pregnancy  in 
her  birth,  at  once  born  and  bringing  forth.  Con- 
tentions, before  brotherly,  were  now  hostile.  Men 
went  to  choose  their  bishop  as  they  went  to  a 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  35 

pitched  field,  and  the  day  of  his  election  was,  like 
the  sacking  of  a  city,  sometimes  ended  with  the 
blood  of  thousands.  Nor  this  among  heretics 
only,  but  men  of  the  same  belief,  yea,  confessors ; 
and  that  with  such  odious  ambition,  that  Eusebius, 
in  his  eighth  book,  testifies  he  abhorred  to  write. 
And  the  reason  is  not  obscure,  for  the  poor  dig- 
nity, or  rather  burden,  of  a  parochial  presbyter 
could  not  engage  any  great  party,  nor  that  to 
any  deadly  feud :  but  prelaty  was  a  power  of  that 
extent  and  sway,  that,  if  her  election  were  popu- 
lar, it  was  seldom  not  the  cause  of  some  faction 
or  broil  in  the  church.  But  if  her  dignity  came 
by  favor  of  some  prince,  she  was  from  that  time 
his  creature,  and  obnoxious  to  comply  with  his 
ends  in  state,  were  they  right  or  wrong.  So  that, 
instead  of  finding  prelaty  an  impeacher  of  schism 
or  faction,  the  more  I  search,  the  more  I  grow 
into  all  persuasion  to  think  rather  that  faction  and 
she,  as  with  a  spousal  ring,  are  wedded  together, 

never  to  be  divorced 

Do  they  keep  away  schism  ?  If  to  bring  a 
numb  and  chill  stupidity  of  soul,  an  unactive 
blindness  of  mind,  upon  the  people  by  their  leaden 
doctrine,  or  no  doctrine  at  all,  if  to  persecute  all 
knowing  and  zealous  Christians  by  the  violence  of 
their  courts,  be  to  keep  away  schism,  they  keep 
schism  away  indeed;  and  by  this  kind  of  disci- 
pline all  Italy  and  Spain  is  as  purely  and  politicly 
kept  from  schism  as  England  hath  been  by  them. 


36     REASON  OF   CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

With  as  good  a  plea  might  the  dead-palsy  boast 
to  a  man,  It  is  I  that  free  you  from  stitches  and 
pains,  and  the  troublesome  feeling  of  cold  and 
heat,  of  wounds  and  strokes :  if  I  were  gone,  all 
these  would  molest  you.  The  winter  might  as 
well  vaunt  itself  against  the  spring,  I  destroy  all 
noisome  and  rank  weeds,  I  keep  down  all  pesti- 
lent vapors ;  yes,  and  all  wholesome  herbs,  and  all 
fresh  dews,  by  your  violent  and  hide-bound  frost : 
but  when  the  gentle  west  winds  shall  open  the 
fruitful  bosom  of  the  earth,  thus  overgirded  by 
your  imprisonment,  then  the  flowers  put  forth 
and  spring,  and  then  the  sun  shall  scatter  the 
mists,  and  the  manuring  hand  of  the  tiller  shall 
root  up  all  that  burdens  the  soil  without  thank  to 

your  bondage 

It  may  suffice  us  to  be  taught  by  St.  Paul,  that 
there  must  be  sects  for  the  manifesting  of  those 
that  are  sound-hearted.  These  are  but  winds  and 
flaws  to  try  the  floating  vessel  of  our  faith,  whether 
it  be  stanch  and  sail  well,  whether  our  ballast  be 
just,  our  anchorage  and  cable  strong.  By  this  is 
seen  who  lives  by  faith  and  certain  knowledge,  and 
who  by  credulity  and  the  prevailing  opinion  of  the 
age ;  whose  virtue  is  of  an  unchangeable  grain,  and 
whose  of  a  slight  wash.  If  God  come  to  try  our 
constancy,  we  ought  not  to  shrink  or  stand  the 
less  firmly  for  that,  but  pass  on  with  more  stead- 
fast resolution  to  establish  the  truth,  though  it 
were  through  a  lane  of  sects  and  heresies  on  each 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  37 

side.  Other  things  men  do  to  the  glory  of  God : 
but  sects  and  errors,  it  seems,  God  suffers  to  be 
for  the  glory  of  good  men,  that  the  world  may 
know  and  reverence  their  true  fortitude  and  un- 
daunted constancy  in  the  truth.  Let  us  not 
therefore  make  these  things  an  incumbrance,  or 
an  excuse  of  our  delay  in  reforming,  which  God 
sends  as  us  an  incitement  to  proceed  with  more 
honor  and  alacrity :  for  if  there  were  no  opposi- 
tion, where  were  the  trial  of  an  unfeigned  good- 
ness and  magnanimity  ?  Virtue  that  wavers  is  not 
virtue,  but  vice  revolted  from  itself,  and  after  a 
while  returning.  The  actions  of  just  and  pious 
men  do  not  darken  in  their  middle  course ;  but 
Solomon  tells  us,  they  are  as  the  shining  light, 
that  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day. 
But  if  we  shall  suffer  the  trifling  doubts  and  jeal- 
ousies of  future  sects  to  overcloud  the  fair  begin- 
nings of  purposed  reformation,  let  us  rather  fear 
that  another  proverb  of  the  same  wise  man  be  not 
upbraided  to  us,  that  "  the  way  of  the  wicked  is  as 
darkness ;  they  stumble  at  they  know  not  what." 
If  sects  and  schisms  be  turbulent  in  the  unsettled 
estate  of  a  church,  while  it  lies  under  the  amend- 
ing hand,  it  best  beseems  our  Christian  courage  to 
think  they  are  but  as  the  throes  and  pangs  that  go 
before  the  birth  of  reformation,  and  that  the  work 
itself  is  now  in  doing.  For  if  we  look  but  on  the 
nature  of  elemental  and  mixed  things,  we  know 

O    ' 

they  cannot  suffer  any  change   of  one   kind   or 


38     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

quality  into  another,  without  the  struggle  of  con- 
trarieties. And  in  things  artificial,  seldom  any. 
elegance  is  wrought  without  a  superfluous  waste 
and  refuse  in  the  transaction.  No  marble  statue 
can  be  politely  carved,  no  fair  edifice  built,  with- 
out almost  as  much  rubbish  and  sweeping.  Inso- 
much that  even  in  the  spiritual  conflict'  of  St. 
Paul's  conversion,  there  fell  scales  from  his  eyes, 
that  were  not  perceived  before.  No  wonder,  then, 
in  the  reforming  of  a  church,  which  is  never 
brought  to  effect  without  the  fierce  encounter  of 

O 

truth  and  falsehood  together,  if,  as  it  were,  the 
splinters  and  shards  of  so  violent  a  jousting,  there 
fall  from  between  the  shock  many  fond  errors  and 
fanatic  opinions,  which,  when  truth  has  the  upper 
hand,  and  the  reformation  shall  be  perfected,  will 
easily  be  rid  out  of  the  way,  or  kept  so  low,  as  that 
they  shall  be  only  the  exercise  of  our  knowledge, 

not  the  disturbance  or  interruption  of  our  faith 

In  state  many  things  at  first  are  crude  and  hard 
to  digest,  which  only  time  and  deliberation  can 
supple  and  concoct.  But  in  religion,  wherein  is 
no  immaturity,  nothing  out  of  season,  it  goes  far 
otherwise.  The  door  of  grace  turns  upon  smooth 
hinges,  wide  opening  to  send  out,  but  soon  shut- 
ting to  recall  the  precious  offers  of  mercy  to  a  na- 
tion :  which,  unless  watchfulness  and  zeal,  two 
quicksighted  and  ready-handed  virgins,  be  there 
in  our  behalf  to  receive,  we  lose  ;  and  still  the 
oftener  we  lose,  the  straiter  the  door  opens,  and 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  39 

the  less  is  offered.     This  is  all  we  get  by  demur- 
ring in  God's  service. 


How  happy  were  it  for  this  frail,  and  as  it  may 
be  called  mortal  life  of  man,  since  all  earthly 
things  which  have  the  name  of  good  and  conven- 
ient in  our  daily  use,  are  withal  so  cumbersome 
and  full  of  trouble,  if  knowledge,  yet  which  is  the 
best  and  lightsomest  possession  of  the  mind,  were, 
as  the  common  saying  is,  no  burden  ;  and  that 
what  it  wanted  of  being  a  load  to  any  part  of  the 
body,  it  did  not  with  a  heavy  advantage  overlay 
upon  the  spirit !  For  not  to  speak  of  that  knowl- 
edge that  rests  in  the  contemplation  of  natural 
causes  and  dimensions,  which  must  needs  be  a 
lower  wisdom,  as  the  object  is  low,  certain  it  is, 
that  he  who  hath  obtained  in  more  than  the  scan- 
tiest measure  to  know  anything  distinctly  of  God, 
and  of  his  true  worship,  and  what  is  infallibly  good 
and  happy  in  the  state  of  man's  life,  what  in  itself 
evil  and  miserable,  though  vulgarly  not  so  es- 
teemed, —  he  that  hath  obtained  to  know  this,  the 
only  high  valuable  wisdom  indeed,  remembering 
also  that  God,  even  to  a  strictness,  requires  the  im- 
provement of  those  his  intrusted  gifts,  cannot  but 
sustain  a  sorer  burden  of  mind,  and  more  pressing 
than  any  supportable  toil  or  weight  which  the  body 
can  labor  under,  how  and  in  what  manner  he  shall 
dispose  and  employ  these  sums  of  knowledge  and 


40     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

illumination,  which  God  hath  sent  him  into  this 
world  to  trade  with.  And  that  which  aggravates 
the  burden  more  is,  that,  having  received  amongst 
his  allotted  parcels  certain  precious  truths,  of 
such  an  orient  lustre  as  no  diamond  can  equal, 
which  nevertheless  he  has  in  charge  to  put  off  at 
any  cheap  rate,  yea,  for  nothing  to  them  that  will, 
the  great  merchants  of  this  world,  fearing  that  this 
course  would  soon  discover  and  disgrace  the  false 
glitter  of  their  deceitful  wares,  wherewith  they 
abuse  the  people,  like  poor  Indians  with  beads  and 
glasses,  practise  by  all  means  how  they  may  sup- 
press the  vending  of  such  rarities,  and  at  such  a 
cheapness  as  would  undo  them,  and  turn  their 
trash  upon  their  hands.  Therefore,  by  gratifying 
the  corrupt  desires  of  men  in  fleshly  doctrines,  they 
stir  them  up  to  persecute  with  hatred  and  con- 
tempt all  those  that  seek  to  bear  themselves  up- 
rightly in  this  their  spiritual  factory :  which  they 
foreseeing,  though  they  cannot  but  testify  of  truth, 
and  the  excellency  of  that  heavenly  traffic  which 
they  bring,  against  what  opposition  or  danger  so- 
ever, yet  needs  must  it  sit  heavily  upon  their  spir- 
its, that  being,  in  God's  prime  intention  and  their 
own,  selected  heralds  of  peace,  and  dispensers  of 
treasure  inestimable,  without  price,  to  them  that 
have  no  peace,  they  find  in  the  discharge  of  their 
commission  that  they  are  made  the  greatest  vari- 
ance and  offence,  a  very  sword  and  fire,  both 
in  house  and  city,  over  the  whole  earth.  This 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  41 

is  that  which  the  sad  prophet  Jeremiah  laments : 
"  Woe  is  me,  my  mother,  that  thou  hast  borne 
me  a  man  of  strife  and  contention ! "  And  al- 
though divine  inspiration  must  certainly  have  been 
sweet  to  those  ancient  prophets,  yet  the  irksome- 
ness  of  that  truth  .which  they  brought  was  so 
unpleasant  unto  them,  that  everywhere  they  call 
it  a  burden.  Yea,  that  mysterious  book  of  revela- 
tion which  the  great  Evangelist  was  bid  to  eat,  as 
it  had  been  some  eye-brightening  electuary  of 
knowledge  and  foresight,  though  it  were  sweet  in 
his  mouth,  and  in  the  learning,  it  was  bitter  in  his 
belly,  bitter  in  the  denouncing.  Nor  was  this  hid 
from  the  wise  poet  Sophocles,  who  in  that  place  of 
his  tragedy  where  Tiresias  is  called  to  resolve 
King  QEdipus  in  a  matter  which  he  knew  would  be 
grievous,  brings  him  in  bemoaning  his  lot,  that  he 
knew  more  than  other  men.  For  surely  to  e very- 
good  and  peaceable  man  it  must  in  nature  needs 
be  a  hateful  thing  to  be  the  displeaser  and  molest- 
er  of  thousands;  much  better  would  it  like  him 
doubtless  to  be  the  messenger  of  gladness  and  con- 
tentment which  is  his  chief  intended  business  to  all 
mankind,  but  that  they  resist  and  oppose  their  own 
true  happiness.  But  when  God  commands  to  take 
the  trumpet,  and  blow  a  dolorous  or  a  jarring 
blast,  it  lies  not  in  man's  will,  what  he  shall  say, 
or  what  he  shall  conceal.  If  he  shall  think  to  be 
silent  as  Jeremiah  did,  because  of  the  reproach 
and  derision  he  met  with  daily,  —  "And  all  his 


42     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

familiar  friends  watched  for  his  halting,"  to  be  re- 
venged on  him  for  speaking  the  truth,  —  he  would 
be  forced  to  confess  as  he  confessed :  "  His  word 
was  in  my  heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my 
bones  ;  I  was  weary  with  forbearing,  and  could 
not  stay."  Which  might  teach  these  times  not 
suddenly  to  condemn  all  things  that  are  sharply 
spoken  or  vehemently  written  as  proceeding  out 
of  stomach,  virulence,  or  ill-nature,  but  to  consid- 
er rather,  that,  if  the  prelates  have  leave  to  say 
the  worst  that  can  be  said,  or  do  the  worst  that 
can  be  done,  while  they  strive  to  keep  to  them- 
selves, to  their  great  pleasure  and  commodity, 
those  things  which  they  ought  to  render  up,  no 
man  can  be  justly  offended  with  him  that  shall 
endeavor  to  impart  and  bestow,  without  any  gain 
to  himself,  those  sharp  but  saving  words  which 
would  be  a  terror  and  a  torment  in  him  to  keep 
back. 

For  me,  I  have  determined  to  lay  up  as  the  best 
treasure  and  solace  of  a  good  old  age,  if  God 
vouchsafe  it  me,  the  honest  liberty  of  free  speech 
from  my  youth,  where  I  shall  think  it  available  in 
so  dear  a  concernment  as  the  Church's  good.  For 
if  I  be,  either  by  disposition  or  what  other  cause, 
too  inquisitive,  or  suspicious  of  myself  and  mine 
own  doings,  who  can  help  it  ?  But  this  I  foresee, 
that  should  the  Church  be  brought  under  heavy  op- 
pression, and  God  have  given  me  ability  the  while 
to  reason  against  that  man  that  should  be  the  author 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  43 

of  so  foul  a  deed,  —  or  should  she,  by  blessing  from 
above  on  the  industry  and  courage  of  faithful  men, 
change  this  her  distracted  estate  into  better  days 
without  the  least  furtherance  or  contribution  of 
those  few  talents  which  God  at  that  present  had 
lent  me,  —  I  foresee  what  stories  I  should  hear 
within  myself,  all  my  life  after,  of  discourage  and 
reproach.  Timorous  and  ungrateful,  the  Church 
of  God  is  now  again  at  the  foot  of  her  insulting 
enemies,  and  thou  bewailest.  What  matters  it  for 
thee,  or  thy  bewailing?  When  time  was,  thou 
couldst  not  find  a  syllable  of  all  that  thou  hast 
read,  or  studied,  to  utter  in  her  behalf.  Yet  ease 
and  leisure  was  given  thee  for  thy  retired  thoughts, 
out  of  the  sweat  of  other  men.  Thou  hast  the  dil- 
igence, the  parts,  the  language  of  a  man,  if  a  vain 
subject  were  to  be  adorned  or  beautified ;  but 
when  the  cause  of  God  and  his  Church  was  to  be 
pleaded,  for  which  purpose  that  tongue  was  given 
thee  which  thou  hast,  God  listened  if  he  could 
hear  thy  voice  among  his  zealous  servants,  but 
thou  wert  dumb  as  a  beast ;  from  henceforward  be 
that  which  thine  own  brutish  silence  hath  made 
thee.  Or  else  I  should  have  heard  on  the  other 
ear :  Slothful,  and  ever  to  be  set  light  by,  the 
Church  hath  now  overcome  her  late  distresses 
after  the  unwearied  labors  of  many  her  true  ser- 
vants that  stood  up  in  her  defence  ;  thou  also 
wouldst  take  upon  thee  to  share  amongst  them  of 
their  joy:  but  wherefore  thou?  Where  canst 


44     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

thou  show  any  word  or  deed  of  thine  which  might 
have  hastened  her  peace  ?  Whatever  thou  dost 
now  talk,  or  write,  or  look,  is  the  alms  of  other 
men's  active  prudence  and  zeal.  Dare  not  now  to 
say  or  do  anything  better  than  thy  former  sloth 
and  infancy ;  or  if  thou  darest,  thou  dost  impudent- 
ly to  make  a  thrifty  purchase  of  boldness  to  thyself, 
out  of  the  painful  merits  of  other  men ;  what  be- 
fore was  thy  sin  is  now  thy  duty,  to  be  abject  and 
worthless.  These,  and  such  like  lessons  as  these, 
I  know  would  have  been  my  matins  duly  and  my 
even-song.  But  now,  by  this  little  diligence,  mark 
what  a  privilege  I  have  gained  with  good  men  and 
saints  to  claim  my  right  of  lamenting  the  tribula- 
tions of  the  Church,  if  she  should  suffer  when 
others,  that  have  ventured  nothing  for  her  sake, 
have  not  the  honor  to  be  admitted  mourners. 
But  if  she  lift  up  her  drooping  head  and  pros- 
per, among  those  that  have  something  more  than 
wished  her  welfare,  I  have  my  charter  and  free- 
hold of  rejoicing  to  me  and  my  heirs.  Concern- 
ing, therefore,  this  wayward  subject,  against  prel- 
aty,  the  touching  whereof  is  so  distasteful  and  dis- 
quietous  to  a  number  of  men,  as  by  what  hath 
been  said  I  may  deserve  of  charitable  readers  to 
be  credited,  that  neither  envy  nor  gall  hath  en- 
tered me  upon  this  controversy,  but  the  enforce- 
ment of  conscience  only,  and  a  preventive  fear 
lest  the  omitting  of  this  duty  should  be  against  me, 
when  I  would  store  up  to  myself  the  good  provis- 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  45 

ion  of  peaceful  hours :  so,  lest  it  should  be  still  im- 
puted to  me,  as  I  have  found  it  hath  been,  that 
some  self-pleasing  humor  of  vainglory  hath  incited 
me  to  contest  with  men  of  high  estimation,  now 
while  green  years  are  upon  my  head,  from  this 
needless  surmisal  I  shall  hope  to  dissuade  the  intel- 
ligent and  equal  auditor,  if  I  can  but  say  success- 
fully that  which  in  this  exigent  behoves  me ;  al- 
though I  would  be  heard  only,  if  it  might  be,  by 
the  elegant  and  learned  reader,  to  whom  principally 
for  a  while  I  shall  beg  leave  I  may  address  myself. 
To  him  it  will  be  no  new  thing,  though  I  tell  him 
that  if  I  hunted  after  praise,  by  the  ostentation  of 
wit  and  learning,  I  should  not  write  thus  out  of 
mine  own  season,  when  I  have  neither  yet  com- 
pleted to  my  mind  the  full  circle  of  my  private 
studies,  although  I  complain  not  of  any  insufficien- 
cy to  the  matter  in  hand ;  or  were  I  ready  to  my 
wishes,  it  were  a  folly  to  commit  anything  elabo- 
rately composed  to  the  careless  and  interrupted 
listening  of  these  tumultuous  times.  Next,  if  I 
were  wise  only  to  my  own  ends,  I  would  certainly 
take  such  a  subject  as  of  itself  might  catch  ap- 
plause, whereas  this  hath  all  the  disadvantages  on 
the  contrary,  and  such  a  subject  as  the  publishing 
whereof  might  be  delayed  at  pleasure,  and  time 
enough  to  pencil  it  over  with  all  the  curious 
touches  of  art,  even  to  the  perfection  of  a  fault- 
less picture  ;  whereas  in  this  argument  the  not  de- 
ferring is  of  great  moment  to  the  good  speeding, 


46      REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

that  if  solidity  have  leisure  to  do  her  office,  art 
cannot  have  much.  Lastly,  I  should  not  choose 
this  manner  of  writing,  wherein  knowing  myself 
inferior  to  myself,  led  by  the  genial  power  of  na- 
ture to  another  task,  I  have  the  use,  as  I  may  ac- 
count, but  of  my  left  hand.  And  though  I  shall  be 
foolish  in  saying  more  to  this  purpose,  yet,  since  it 
will  be  such  a  folly  as  wisest  men  go  about  to  com- 
mit, having  only  confessed  and  so  committed,  I  may 
trust  with  more  reason,  because  with  more  folly,  to 
have  courteous  pardon.  For  although  a  poet,  soar- 
ing in  the  high  reason  of  his  fancies,  with  his  gar- 
land and  singing-robes  about  him,  might,  without 
apology,  speak  more  of  himself  than  I  mean  to  do ; 
yet  for  me,  sitting  here  below  in  the  cool  element 
of  prose,  a  mortal  thing  among  many  readers  of  no 
empyreal  conceit,  to  venture  and  divulge  unusual 
things  of  myself,  I  shall  petition  to  the  gentler  sort, 
it  may  not  be  envy  to  me.  I  must  say,  therefore, 
that  after  I  had  for  my  first  years,  by  the  ceaseless 
diligence  and  care  of  my  father,  (whom  God  recom- 
pense !)  been  exercised  to  the  tongues,  and  some 
sciences,  as  my  age  would  suffer,  by  sundry  mas- 
ters and  teachers,  both  at  home  and  at  the  schools, 
it  was  found  that  whether  aught  was  imposed  me 
by  them  that  had  the  overlooking,  or  betaken  to 
of  mine  own  choice  in  English,  or  other  tongue, 
prosing  or  versing,  but  chiefly  by  this  latter,  the 
style,  by  certain  vital  signs  it  had,  was  likely  to 
live.  But  much  latelier  in  the  private  academies 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  47 

of  Italy,  whither  I  was  favored  to  resort,  perceiv- 
ing that  some  trifles  which  I  had  in  memory,  com- 
posed at  under  twenty  or  thereabout,  (for  the 
manner  is,  that  every  one  must  give  some  proof 
of  his  wit  and  reading  there,)  met  with  acceptance 
above  what  was  looked  for;  and  other  things, 
which  I  had  shifted  in  scarcity  of  books  and  con- 
veniences to  patch  up  amongst  them,  were  re- 
ceived with  written  encomiums,  which  the  Italian 
is  not  forward  to  bestow  on  men  of  this  side  the 
Alps ;  I  began  thus  far  to  assent  both  to  them  and 
divers  of  my  friends  here  at  home,  and  not  less  to 
an  inward  prompting  which  now  grew  daily  upon 
me,  that  by  labor  and  intense  study,  (which  I  take 
to  be  my  portion  in  this  life,)  joined  with  the 
strong  propensity  of  nature,  I  might  perhaps  leave 
something  so  written  to  after-times,  as  they  should 
not  willingly  let  it  die.  These  thoughts  at  once 
possessed  me,  and  these  other ;  that  if  I  were  cer- 
tain to  write  as  men  buy  leases,  for  three  lives  and 
downward,  there  ought  no  regard  be  sooner  had 
than  to  God's  glory  by  the  honor  and  instruction 
of  my  country.  For  which  cause,  and  not  only 
for  that  I  knew  it  would  be  hard  to  arrive  at  the 
second  rank  among  the  Latins,  I  applied  myself  to 
that  resolution,  which  Ariosto  followed  against  the 
persuasions  of  Bembo,  to  fix  all  the  industry  and 
art  I  could  unite  to  the  adorning  of  my  native 
tongue ;  not  to  make  verbal  curiosities  the  end, 
(that  were  a  toilsome  vanity,)  but  to  be  an  inter- 


48     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

preter  and  relater  of  the  best  and  sagest  things 
among  mine  own  citizens  throughout  this  island  in 
the  mother  dialect.  That  what  the  greatest  and 
choicest  wits  of  Athens,  Rome,  or  modern  Italy, 
and  those  Hebrews  of  old  did  for  their  country, 
I,  in  my  proportion,  with  this  over  and  above  of 
being  a  Christian,  might  do  for  mine  ;  not  caring 
to  be  once  named  abroad,  though  perhaps  I  could 
attain  to  that,  but  content  with  these  British  isl- 
ands as  my  world ;  whose  fortune  hath  hitherto 
been,  that  if  the  Athenians,  as  some  say,  made 
their  small  deeds  great  and  renowned  by  their  elo- 
quent writers,  England  hath  had  her  noble  achieve- 
ments made  small  by  the  unskilful  handling  of 
monks  and  mechanics. 

Time  serves  not  now,  and  perhaps  I  might  seem 
too  profuse  to  give  any  certain  account  of  what 
the  mind  at  home,  in  the  spacious  circuits  of  her 
musing,  hath  liberty  to  propose  to  herself,  though 
of  highest  hope  and  hardest  attempting ;  whether 
that  epic  form  whereof  the  two  poems  of  Homer, 
and  those  other  two  of  Virgil  and  Tasso,  are  a 
diffuse,  and  the  book  of  Job  a  brief  model :  or 
whether  the  rules  of  Aristotle  herein  are  strictly 
to  be  kept,  or  nature  to  be  followed,  which  in 
them  that  know  art,  and  use  judgment,  is  no  trans- 
gression, but  an  enriching  of  art :  and,  lastly,  what 
king  or  knight  before  the  Conquest  might  be  cho- 
sen in  whom  to  lay  the  pattern  of  a  Christian  hero. 
And  as  Tasso  gave  to  a  prince  of  Italy  his  choice 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  49 

whether  he  would  command  him  to  write  of  God- 
frey's expedition  against  the  Infidels,  or  Belisa- 
rius  against  the  Goths,  or  Charlemain  against 
the  Lombards ;  if  to  the  instinct  of  nature  and  the 
emboldening  of  art  aught  may  be  trusted,  and  that 
there  be  nothing  adverse  in  our  climate,  or  the  fate 
of  this  age,  it  haply  would  be  no  rashness,  from  an 
equal  diligence  and  inclination,  to  present  the  like 
offer  in  our  own  ancient  stories ;  or  whether  those 
dramatic  constitutions,  wherein  Sophocles  and  Eu- 
ripides reign,  shall  be  found  more  doctrinal  and 
exemplary  to  a  nation.  The  Scripture  also  af- 
fords us  a  divine  pastoral  drama  in  the  Song  of 
Solomon,  consisting  of  two  persons,  and  a  double 
chorus,  as  Origen  rightly  judges.  And  the  Apoc- 
alypse of  St.  John  is  the  majestic  image  of  a  high 
and  stately  tragedy,  shutting  up  and  intermin- 
gling her  solemn  scenes  and  acts  with  a  sevenfold 
chorus  of  hallelujahs  and  harping  symphonies : 
and  this  my  opinion  the  grave  authority  of  Pare- 
us,  commenting  that  book,  is  sufficient  to  confirm. 
Or  if  occasion  shall  lead,  to  imitate  those  magnific 
odes  and  hymns,  wherein  Pindarus  and  Callima- 
chus  are  in  most  things  worthy,  some  others  in 
their  frame  judicious,  in  their  matter  most  an  end 
faulty.  But  those  frequent  songs  throughout  the 
law  and  prophets  beyond  all  these,  not  in  their  di- 
vine argument  alone,  but  in  the  very  critical  art 
of  composition,  may  be  easily  made  appear  over 
all  the  kinds  of  lyric  poesy  to  be  incomparable. 


50     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

These  abilities,  wheresoever  they  be  found,  are 
the  inspired  gift  of  God,  rarely  bestowed,  but  yet 
to  some  (though  most  abuse)  in  every  nation ; 
and  are  of  power,  beside  the  office  of  a  pulpit, 
to  imbreed  and  cherish  in  a  great  people  the  seeds 
of  virtue  and  public  civility,  to  allay  the  perturba- 
tions of  the  mind,  and  set  the  affections  in  right 
tune  ;  to  celebrate  in  glorious  and  lofty  hymns  the 
throne  and  equipage  of  God's  almightiness,  and 
what  he  works,  and  what  he  suffers  to  be  wrought 

7  o 

with  high  providence  in  his  Church ;  to  sing  vic- 
torious agonies  of  martyrs  and  saints,  the  deeds 
and  triumphs  of  just  and  pious  nations,  doing  val- 
iantly through  faith  against  the  enemies  of  Christ ; 
to  deplore  the  general  relapses  of  kingdoms  and 
states  from  justice  and  God's  true  worship.  Last- 
ly, whatsoever  in  religion  is  holy  and  sublime,  in 
virtue  amiable  or  grave,  whatsoever  hath  passion 
<or  admiration  in  all  the  changes  of  that  which  is 
called  fortune  from  without,  or  the  wily  subtleties 
and  refluxes  of  man's  thoughts  from  within ;  all 
these  things  with  a  solid  and  treatable  smoothness 
to  paint  out  and  describe :  teaching  over  the 
whole  book  of  sanctity  and  virtue,  through  all  the 
instances  of  example,  with  such  delight  to  those 
especially  of  soft  and  delicious  temper,  who  will 
not  so  much  as  look  upon  truth  herself  unless  they 
see  her  elegantly  dressed ;  that  whereas  the  paths 
of  honesty  and  good  life  appear  now  rugged  and 
difficult,  though  they  be  indeed  easy  and  pleasant, 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  51 

they  will  then  appear  to  all  men  both  easy  and 
pleasant,  though  they  were  rugged  and  difficult 
indeed.  And  what  a  benefit  this  would  be  to  our 
youth  and  gentry,  may  be  soon  guessed  by  what 
we  know  of  the  corruption  and  bane  which  they 
suck  in  daily  from  the  writings  and  interludes  of 
libidinous  and  ignorant  poetasters,  who,  having 
scarce  ever  heard  of  that  which  is  the  main  con- 
sistence of  a  true  poem,  the  choice  of  such  per- 
sons as  they  ought  to  introduce,  and  what  is  moral 
and  decent  to  each  one,  do  for  the  most  part  lay 
up  vicious  principles  in  sweet  pills  to  be  swallowed 
down,  and  make  the  taste  of  virtuous  documents 
harsh  and  sour.  But  because  the  spirit  of  man 
cannot  demean  itself  lively  in  this  body,  without 
some  recreating  intermission  of  labor  and  serious 
things,  it  were  happy  for  the  commonwealth,  if 
our  magistrates,  as  in  those  famous  governments 
of  old,  would  take  into  their  care,  not  only  the  de- 
ciding of  our  contentious  law-cases  and  brawls, 
but  the  managing  of  our  public  sports  and  festi- 
val pastimes ;  that  they  might  be,  not  such  as 
were  authorized  a  while  since,  the  provocations  of 
drunkenness  and  lust,  but  such  as  may  inure  and 
harden  our  bodies  by  martial  exercises  to  all 
warlike  skill  and  performance;  and  may  civilize, 
adorn,  and  make  discreet  our  minds  by  the  learned 
and  affable  meeting  of  frequent  academies,  and 
the  procurement  of  wise  and  artful  recitations, 
sweetened  with  eloquent  and  graceful  enticements 


52      REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

to  the  love  and  practice  of  justice,  temperance,  and 
fortitude,  instructing  and  bettering  the  nation  at 
all  opportunities,  that  the  call  of  wisdom  and  vir- 
tue may  be  heard  everywhere,  as  Solomon  saith : 
"  She  crieth  without,  she  uttereth  her  voice  in 
the  streets,  in  the  top  of  high  places,  in  the  chief 
concourse,  and  in  the  openings  of  the  gates." 
Whether  this  may  not  be,  not  only  in  pulpits,  but 
after  another  persuasive  method,  at  set  and  solemn 
paneguries,  in  theatres,  porches,  or  what  other 
place  or  way  may  win  most  upon  the  people  to 
receive  at  once  both  recreation  and  instruction,  let 
them  in  authority  consult.  The  thing  which  I 
had  to  say,  and  those  intentions  which  have  lived 
within  me  ever  since  I  could  conceive  myself  any- 
thing worth  to  my  country,  I  return  to  crave  ex- 
cuse that  urgent  reason  hath  plucked  from  me,  by 
an  abortive  and  foredated  discovery.  And  the 
accomplishment  of  them  lies  not  but  in'  a  power 
above  man's  to  promise ;  but  that  none  hath  by 
more  studious  ways  endeavored,  and  with  more 
unwearied  spirit  that  none  shall,  that  I  dare  al- 
most aver  of  myself,  as  far  as  life  and  free  leisure 
will  extend;  and  that  the  land  had  once  enfran- 
chised herself  from  this  impertinent  yoke  of  pre- 
laty,  under  whose  inquisitorious  and  tyrannical 
duncery  no  free  and  splendid  wit  can  flourish. 
Neither  do  I  think  it  shame  to  covenant  with  any 
knowing  reader,  that  for  some  few  years  yet  I 
may  go  on  trust  with  him  toward  the  payment  of 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  53 

what  I  am  now  indebted,  as  being  a  work  not  to 
be  raised  from  the  heat  of  youth,  or  the  vapors  of 
wine  ;  like  that  which  flows  at  waste  from  the  pen 
of  some  vulgar  amourist,  or  the  trencher  fury  of 
a  rhyming  parasite ;  nor  to  be  obtained  by  the 
invocation  of  Dame  Memory  and  her  siren  daugh- 
ters, but  by  devout  prayer  to  that  Eternal  Spirit, 
who  can  enrich  with  all  utterance  and  knowledge, 
and  sends  out  his  seraphim,  with  the  hallowed  fire 
of  his  altar,  to  touch  and  purify  the  lips  of  whom 
he  pleases :  to  this  must  be  added  industrious  and 
select  reading,  steady  observation,  insight  into  all 
seemly  and  generous  arts  and  affairs ;  till  which 
in  some  measure  be  compassed,  at  mine  own  peril 
and  cost,  I  refuse  not  to  sustain  this  expectation 
from  as  many  as  are  not  loath  to  hazard  so  much 
credulity  upon  the  best  pledges  that  I  can  give 
them.  Although  it  nothing  content  me  to  have 
disclosed  thus  much  beforehand,  but  that  I  trust 
hereby  to  make  it  manifest  with  what  small  will- 
ingness I  endure  to  interrupt  the  pursuit  of  no 
less  hopes  than  these,  and  leave  a  calm  and  pleas- 
ing solitariness,  fed  with  cheerful  and  confident 
thoughts,  to  embark  in  a  troubled  sea  of  noises 
and  hoarse  disputes,  put  from  beholding  the  bright 
countenance  of  truth  in  the  quiet  and  still  air  of 
delightful  studies,  to  come  into  the  dim  reflection 
of  hollow  antiquities  sold  by  the  seeming  bulk, 
and  there  be  fain  to  club  quotations  with  men 
whose  learning  and  belief  lies  in  marginal  stuff- 


54     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

ings,  who,  when  they  have,  like  good  sumpters, 
laid  ye  down  their  horse-loads  of  citations  and 
fathers  at  your  door,  with  a  rhapsody  of  who  and 
who  were  bishops  here  or  there,  ye  may  take  off 
their  packsaddles,  their  day's  work  is  done,  and 
episcopacy,  as  they  think,  stoutly  vindicated.  Let 
any  gentle  apprehension,  that  can  distinguish 
learned  pains  from  unlearned  drudgery,  imagine 
what  pleasure  or  profoundness  can  be  in  this,  or 
what  honor  to  deal  against  such  adversaries.  But 
were  it  the  meanest  under-service,  if  God  by  his 
secretary  Conscience  enjoin  it,  it  were  sad  for  me 
if  I  should  draw  back;  for  me  especially,  now 
when  all  men  offer  their  aid  to  help,  ease,  and 
lighten  the  difficult  labors  of  the  Church,  to  whose 

O  7 

service,  by  the  intentions  of  my  parents  and 
friends,  I  was  destined  of  a  child,  and  in  mine 
own  resolutions :  till  coming  to  some  maturity  of 
years,  and  perceiving  what  tyranny  had  invaded 
the  Church,  that  he  who  would  take  orders  must 
subscribe  slave,  and  take  an  oath  withal,  which, 
unless  he  took  with  a  conscience  that  would  retch, 
he  must  either  straight  perjure,  or  split  his  faith ; 
I  thought  it  better  to  prefer  a  blameless  silence 
before  the  sacred  office  of  speaking,  bought  and 
begun  with  servitude  and  forswearing.  Howso- 
ever, thus  church-outed  by  the  prelates,  hence 
may  appear  the  right  I  have  to  meddle  in  these 
matters,  as  before  the  necessity  and  constraint  ap- 
peared  


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  55 

Who  is  there  almost  that  measures  wisdom  by 
simplicity,  strength  by  suffering,  dignity  by  lowli- 
ness ?  Who  is  there  that  counts"  it  first  to  be 
last,  something  to  be  nothing,  and  reckons  him- 
self of  great  command  in  that  he  is  a  servant? 
Yet  God,  when  he  meant  to  subdue  the  world 
and  hell  at  once,  part  of  that  to  salvation,  and 
this  wholly  to  perdition,  made  choice  of  no  other 
weapons  or  auxiliaries  than  these,  whether  to  save 
or  to  destroy.  It  had  been  a  small  mastery  for 
him  to  have  drawn  out  his  legions  into  array,  and 
flanked  them  with  his  thunder ;  therefore  he  sent 
foolishness  to  confute  wisdom,  weakness  to  bind 
strength,  despisedness  to  vanquish  pride :  and  this 
is  the  great  mystery  of  the  Gospel  made  good  in 
Christ  himself,  who,  as  he  testifies,  came  not  to  be 
ministered  to,  but  to  minister ;  and  must  be  ful- 
filled in  all  his  ministers  till  his  second  coming.  .  .  . 

For  truth,  I  know  not  how,  hath  this  unhappi- 
ness  fatal  to  her,  ere  she  can  come  to  the  trial  and 
inspection  of  the  understanding;  being  to  pass 
through  many  little  wards  and  limits  of  the  sev- 
eral affections  and  desires,  she  cannot  shift  it,  but 
must  put  on  such  colors  and  attire  as  those  pathet- 
ic handmaids  of  the  soul  please  to  lead  her  in  to 
their  queen :  and  if  she  find  so  much  favor  with 
them,  they  let  her  pass  in  her  own  likeness ;  if 
not,  they  bring  her  into  the  presence  habited  and 
colored  like  a  notorious  falsehood.  And  contrary, 
when  any  falsehood  comes  that  way,  if  they  like 


56     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

the  errand  she  brings,  they  are  so  artful  to  coun- 
terfeit the  very  shape  and  visage  of  truth,  that  the 
understanding  not  being  able  to  discern  the  fucus 
which  these  enchantresses  with  such  cunning  have 

O 

laid  upon  the  feature  sometimes  of  truth,  some- 
times of  falsehood  interchangeably,  sentences  for 
the  most  part  one  for  the  other  at  the  first  blush, 
according  to  the  subtle  imposture  of  these  sensual 
mistresses,  that  keep  the  ports  and  passages  be- 
tween her  and  the  object 

But  there  is  yet  a  more  ingenuous  and  noble 
degree  of  honest  shame,  or,  call  it,  if  you  will,  an 
esteem,  whereby  men  bear  an  inward  reverence 
toward  their  own  persons.  And  if  the  love  of 
God,  as  a  fire  sent  from  heaven  to  be  ever  kept 
alive  upon  the  altars  of  our  hearts,  be  the  first 
principle  of  all  godly  and  virtuous  actions  in  men, 
this  pious  and  just  honoring  of  ourselves  is  the 
second,  and  may  be  thought  as  the  radical  moist- 
ure and  fountain-head,  whence  every  laudable  and 
worthy  enterprise  issues  forth.  And  although  I 
have  given  it  the  name  of  a  liquid  thing,  yet  it  is 
not  incontinent  to  bound  itself,  as  humid  things 
are,  but  hath  in  it  a  most  restraining  and  powerful 
abstinence  to  start  back,  and  glob  itself  upward 
from  the  mixture  of  any  ungenerous  and  unbe- 
seeming motion,  or  any  soil  wherewith  it  may 
peril  to  stain  itself.  Something  I  confess  it  is  to 
be  ashamed  of  evil-doing  in  the  presence  of  any ; 
and  to  reverence  the  opinion  and  the  countenance 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  57 

of  a  good  man  rather  than  a  bad,  fearing  most  in 
his  sight  to  offend,  goes  so  far  as  almost  to  be  vir- 
tuous ;  yet  this  is  but  still  the  fear  of  infamy,  and 
many  such,  when  they  find  themselves  alone, 
saving  their  reputation,  will  compound  with  other 
scruples,  and  come  to  a  close  treaty  with  their 
dearer  vices  in  secret.  But  he  that  holds  himself 
in  reverence  and  due  esteem,  both  for  the  dignity 
of  God's  image  upon  him,  and  for  the  price  of  his 
redemption,  which  he  thinks  is  visibly  marked 
upon  his  forehead,  accounts  himself  both  a  fit  per- 
son to  do  the  noblest  and  godliest  deeds,  and  much 
better  worth  than  to  deject  and  defile,  with  such 
a  debasement,  and  such  a  pollution  as  sin  is,  him- 
self so  highly  ransomed  and  ennobled  to  a  new 
friendship  and  filial  relation  with  God.  Nor  can 
he  fear  so  much  the  offence  and  reproach  of 
others,  as  he  dreads  and  would  blush  at  the  re- 
flection of  his  own  severe  and  modest  eye  upon 
himself,  if  it  should  see  him  doing  or  imagining 
that  which  is  sinful,  though  in  the  deepest  se- 
crecy  

Thus  therefore  the  minister  assisted  attends  his 
heavenly  and  spiritual  cure:  where  we  shall  see 
him  both  in  the  course  of  his  proceeding,  and  first 
in  the  excellency  of  his  end,  from  the  magistrate 
far  different,  and  not  more  different  than  excel- 
ling. His  end  is  to  recover  all  that  is  of  man, 
both  soul  and  body,  to  an  everlasting  health ;  and 
yet  as  for  worldly  happiness,  which  is  the  proper 
3* 


58      REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

sphere  wherein  the  magistrate  cannot  but  confine 
his  motion,  without  a  hideous  exorbitancy  from 
law,  so  little  aims  the  minister,  as  his  intended 
scope,  to  procure  the  much  prosperity  of  this  life, 
that  ofttimes  he  may  have  cause  to  wish  much  of 
it  away,  as  a  diet  puffing  up  the  soul  with  a  slimy 
fleshiness,  and  weakening  her  principal  organic 
parts.  Two  heads  of  evil  he  has  to  cope  with, 
ignorance  and  malice.  Against  the  former  he 
provides  the  daily  manna  of  incorruptible  doc- 
trine, not  at  those  set  meals  only  in  public,  but  as 
oft  as  he  shall  know  that  each  infirmity  or  consti- 
tution requires.  Against  the  latter  with  all  the 
branches  thereof,  not  meddling  with  that  restrain- 
ing and  styptic  surgery,  which  the  law  uses,  not 
indeed  against  the  malady,  but  against  the  erup- 
tions, and  outermost  effects  thereof;  he,  on  the 
contrary,  beginning  at  the  prime  causes  and  roots 
of  the  disease,  sends  in  those  two  divine  ingredi- 
ents of  most  cleansing  power  to  the  soul,  admo- 
nition and  reproof;  besides  which  two,  there  is  no 
drug  or  antidote  that  can  reach  to  purge  the  mind, 
and  without  which  all  other  experiments  are  but 
vain,  unless  by  accident.  And  he  that  will  not 
let  these  pass  into  him,  though  he  be  the  greatest 
king,  as  Plato  affirms,  must  be  thought  to  remain 
impure  within,  and  unknowing  of  those  things 
wherein  his  pureness  and  his  knowledge  should 
most  appear.  As  soon  therefore  as  it  may  be 
discerned  that  the  Christian  patient,  by  feeding 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  59 

otherwhere  on  meats  not  allowable,  but  of  evil 
juice,  hath  disordered  his  diet,  and  spread  an  ill- 
humor  through  his  veins,  immediately  disposing 
to  a  sickness,  the  minister,  as  being  much  nearer 
both  in  eye  and  duty  than  the  magistrate,  speeds 
him  betimes  to  overtake  that  diffused  malignance 
with  some  gentle  potion  of  admonishment;  or  if 
aught  be  obstructed,  puts  in  his  opening  and  dis- 
cussive  confections.  This  not  succeeding  after 
once  or  twice,  or  oftener,  in  the  presence  of  two 
or  three  his  faithful  brethren  appointed  thereto, 
he  advises  him  to  be  more  careful  of  his  dearest 
health,  and  what  it  is  that  he  so  rashly  hath  let 
down  into  the  divine  vessel  of  his  soul,  God's 
temple.  If  this  obtain  not,  he  then,  with  the 
counsel  of  more  assistants,  who  are  informed  of 
what  diligence  hath  been  already  used,  with  more 
speedy  remedies  lays  nearer  siege  to  the  en- 
trenched causes  of  his  distemper,  not  sparing  such 
fervent  and  well-aimed  reproofs  as  may  best  give 
him  to  see  the  dangerous  estate  wherein  he  is. 
To  this  also  his  brethren  and  friends  entreat,  ex- 
hort, adjure ;  and  all  these  endeavors,  as  there 
is  hope  left,  are  more  or  less  repeated.  But  if 
neither  the  regard  of  himself,  nor  the  reverence 
of  his  elders  and  friends  prevail  with  him  to  leave 
his  vicious  appetite,  then  as  the  time  urges,  such 
engines  of  terror  God  hath  given  into  the  hand 
of  his  minister,  as  to  search  the  tenderest  angles 
of  the  heart:  one  while  he  shakes  his  stubborn- 


60     REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT 

ness  with  racking  convulsions  nigh  despair ;  other- 
whiles  with  deadly  corrosives  he  gripes  the  very 
roots  of  his  faulty  liver  to  bring  him  to  life 
through  the  entry  of  death.  Hereto  the  whole 
Church  beseech  him,  beg  of  him,  deplore  him, 
pray  for  him.  After  all  this,  performed  with 
what  patience  and  attendance  is  possible,  and  no 
relenting  on  his  part,  having  done  the  utmost  of 
their  cure,  in  the  name  of  God  and  of  the  Church 
they  dissolve  their  fellowship  with  him,  and,  hold- 
ing forth  the  dreadful  sponge  of  excommunion, 
pronounce  him  wiped  out  of  the  list  of  God's 
inheritance,  and  in  the  custody  of  Satan  till  he 
repent.  Which  horrid  sentence,  though  it  touch 
neither  life  nor  limb,  nor  any  worldly  possession, 
yet  has  it  such  a  penetrating  force,  that  swifter 
than  any  chemical  sulphur,  or  that  lightning 
which  harms  not  the  skin,  and  rifles  the  entrails, 
it  scorches  the  inmost  soul.  Yet  even  this  terri- 
ble denouncement  is  left  to  the  Church  for  no 
other  cause  but  to  be  as  a  rough  and  vehement 
cleansing  medicine,  where  the  malady  is  obdurate, 
a  mortifying  to  life,  a  kind  of  saving  by  undoing. 
And  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  as  the  mercies  of 
wicked  men  are  cruelties,  so  the  cruelties  of  the 
Church  are  mercies.  For  if  repentance  sent  from 
Heaven  meet  this  lost  wanderer,  and  draw  him 
out  of  that  steep  journey  wherein  he  was  hasting 
towards  destruction,  to  come  and  reconcile  to  the 
Church,  if  he  bring  with  liim  his  bill  of  health, 


URGED  AGAINST  PRELATY.  61 

and  that  he  is  now  clear  of  infection,  and  of  no 
danger  to  the  other  sheep ;  then  with  incredible 
expressions  of  joy  all  his  brethren  receive  him, 
and  set  before  him  those  perfumed  banquets  of 
Christian  consolation ;  with  precious  ointments 
bathing  and  fomenting  the  old,  and  now  to  be 
forgotten  stripes,  which  terror  and  shame  had  in- 
flicted; and  thus  with  heavenly  solaces  they  cheer 
up  his  humble  remorse,  till  he  regain  his  first 

health  and  felicity 

I  cannot  better  liken  the  state  and  person  of  a 
king  than  to  that  mighty  Nazarite  Samson ;  who 
being  disciplined  from  his  birth  in  the  precepts 
and  the  practice  of  temperance  and  sobriety,  with- 
out the  strong  drink  of  injurious  and  excessive 
desires,  grows  up  to  a  noble  strength  and  perfec- 
tion with  those  his  illustrious  and  sunny  locks,  the 
laws,  waving  and  curling  about  his  godlike  shoul- 
ders. And  while  he  keeps  them  about  him  undi- 
minished  and  unshorn,  he  may  with  the  jawbone 
of  an  ass,  that  is,  with  the  word  of  his  meanest 
officer,  suppress  and  put  to  confusion  thousands  of 
those  that  rise  against  his  just  power.  But  laying 
down  his  head  among  the  strumpet  flatteries  of 
prelates,  while  he  sleeps  and  thinks  no  harm,  they 
wickedly  shaving  off  all  those  bright  and  weighty 
tresses  of  his  law,  and  just  prerogatives,  which 
were  his  ornament  and  strength,  deliver  him  over 
to  indirect  and  violent  counsels,  which,  as  those 
Philistines,  put  out  the  fair  and  far-sighted  eyes 


62    REASON  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT. 

of  his  natural  discerning,  and  make  him  grind  in 
the  prison-house  of  their  sinister  ends  and  practices 
upon  him ;  till  he,  knowing  this  prelatical  razor  to 
have  bereft  him  of  his  wonted  might,  nourish 
again  his  puissant  hair,  the  golden  beams  of  law 
and  right;  and  they  sternly  shook  thunder  with 
ruin  upon  the  heads  of  those  his  evil  counsellors, 
but  not  without  great  affliction  to  himself.  .... 

Though  God  for  less  than  ten  just  persons  would 
not  spare  Sodom,  yet  if  you  can  find,  after  due 
search,  but  only  one  good  thing  in  prelaty,  either 
to  religion  or  civil  government,  to  King  or  Parlia- 
ment, to  prince  or  people,  to  law,  liberty,  wealth, 
or  learning,  spare  her,  let  her  live,  let  her  spread 
among  ye,  till  with  her  shadow  all  your  dignities 
and  honors,  and  all  the  glory  of  the  land  be  dark- 
ened and  obscured.  But  on  the  contrary,  if  she 
be  found  to  be  malignant,  hostile,  destructive  to  all 
these,  as  nothing  can  be  surer,  then  let  your  severe 
and  impartial  doom  imitate  the  divine  vengeance  ; 
rain  down  your  punishing  force  upon  this  godless 
and  oppressing  government,  and  bring  such  a  dead 
sea  of  subversion  upon  her,  that  she  may  never  in 
this  land  rise  more  to  afflict  the  holy  reformed 
Church,  and  the  elect  people  of  God. 


FROM 

ANIMADVERSIONS  UPON  THE  REMON- 
STRANT'S DEFENCE  AGAINST  SMEC- 
TYMNUUS. 

all  know  that  in  private  or  personal 
injuries,  yea,  in  public  sufferings  for 
the  cause  of  Christ,  his  rule  and  ex- 
ample teaches  us  to  be  so  far  from  a 
readiness  to  speak  evil,  as  not  to  answer  the  re- 
viler  in  his  language,  though  never  so  much  pro- 
voked: yet  in  the  detecting  and  convincing  of 
any  notorious  enemy  to  truth  and  his  country's 
peace,  especially  that  is  conceited  to  have  a  volu- 
ble and  smart  fluence  of  tongue,  and  in  the  vain 
confidence  of  that,  and  out  of  a  more  tenacious 
cling  to  worldly  respects,  stands  up  for  all  the 
rest  to  justify  a  long  usurpation  and  convicted 
pseudepiscopy  of  prelates,  with  all  their  ceremo- 
nies, liturgies,  and  tyrannies,  which  God  and  man 
are  now  ready  to  explode  and  hiss  out  of  the  land ; 
I  suppose,  and  more  than  suppose,  it  will  be  noth- 
ing disagreeing  from  Christian  meekness  to  handle 
such  a  one  in  a  rougher  accent,  and  to  send  home 


64     FROM  ANIMADVERSIONS  UPON  THE 

his  haughtiness  well  bespurted  with  his  own  holy 
water.  Nor  to  do  thus  are  we  unautoritied  either 
from  the  moral  precept  of  Solomon,  to  answer 
him  thereafter  that  prides  him  in  his  folly ;  nor 
from  the  example  of  Christ,  and  all  his  followers 
in  all  ages,  who,  in  the  refuting  of  those  that  re- 
sisted sound  doctrine,  and  by  subtile  dissimula- 
tions corrupted  the  minds  of  men,  have  wrought 
up  their  zealous  souls  into  such  vehemencies,  as 
nothing  could  be  more  killingly  spoken :  for  who 
can  be  a  greater  enemy  to  mankind,  who  a  more 
dangerous  deceiver,  than  he  who,  defending  a  tra- 
ditional corruption,  uses  no  common  arts,  but  with 
a  wily  stratagem  of  yielding  to  the  time  a  greater 
part  of  his  cause,  seeming  to  forego  all  that  man's 
invention  hath  done  therein,  and  driven  from 
much  of  his  hold  in  Scripture ;  yet  leaving  it  hang- 
ing by  a  twined  thread,  not  from  divine  command, 
but  from  apostolical  prudence  or  assent ;  as  if  he 
had  the  surety  of  some  rolling  trench,  creeps  up 
by  this  mean  to  his  relinquished  fortress  of  divine 
authority  again,  and  still  hovering  between  the 
confines  of  that  which  he  dares  not  be  openly,  and 
that  which  he  will  not  be  sincerely,  trains  on  the 
easy  Christian  insensibly  within  the  close  ambush- 
ment  of  worst  errors,  and  with  a  sly  shuffle  of 
counterfeit  principles,  chopping  and  changing  till 
he  have  gleaned  all  the  good  ones  out  of  their 
minds,  leaves  them  at  last,  after  a  slight  resem- 
blance of  sweeping  and  garnishing,  under  the 


DEFENCE  AGAINST  SMECTYMNUUS.     65 

sevenfold  possession  of  a  desperate  stupidity? 
And,  therefore,  they  that  love  the  souls  of  men, 
which  is  the  dearest  love,  and  stirs  up  the  noblest 
jealousy,  when  they  meet  with  such  collusion, 
cannot  be  blamed  though  they  be  transported  with 
the  zeal  of  truth  to  a  well-heated  fervency;  es- 
pecially, seeing  they  which  thus  offend  against  the 
souls  of  their  brethren,  do  it  with  delight  to  their 
great  gain,  ease,  and  advancement  in  this  world ; 
but  they  that  seek  to  discover  and  oppose  their 
false  trade  of  deceiving,  do  it  not  without  a  sad 
and  unwilling  anger,  not  without  many  hazards ; 
but  without  all  private  and  personal  spleen,  and 
without  any  thought  of  earthly  reward,  whenas 
this  very  course  they  take  stops  their  hopes  of 
ascending  above  a  lowly  and  unenviable  pitch  in 
this  life.  And  although  in  the  serious  uncasing 
of  a  grand  imposture  (for  to  deal  plainly  with 
you,  readers,  prelaty  is  no  better)  there  be  mixed 
here  and  there  such  a  grim  laughter  as  may  ap- 
pear at  the  same  time  in  an  austere  visage,  it  can- 
not be  taxed  of  levity  or  insolence,  for  even  this 
vein  of  laughing  (as  I  could  produce  out  of  grave 
authors)  hath  ofttimes  a  strong  and  sinewy  force 
in  teaching  and  confuting;  nor  can  there  be  a 
more  proper  object  of  indignation  and  scorn  to- 
gether, than  a  false  prophet  taken  in  the  greatest, 
dearest,  and  most  dangerous  cheat,  the  cheat  of 
souls :  in  the  disclosing  whereof,  if  it  be  harmful 
to  be  angry,  and  withal  to  cast  a  lowering  smile, 


66     FROM  ANIMADVERSIONS  UPON  THE 

when  the  properest  object  calls  for  both,  it  will  be 
long  enough  ere  any  be  able  to  say,  why  those  two 
most  rational  faculties  of  human  intellect,  anger  and 
laughter,  were  first  seated  in  the  breast  of  man 

The  Romans  had  a  time,  once  every  year,  when 
their  slaves  might  freely  speak  their  minds ;  it 
were  hard  if  the  freeborn  people  of  England,  with 
whom  the  voice  of  truth  for  these  many  years, 
even  against  the  proverb,  hath  not  been  heard  but 
in  corners,  after  all  your  monkish  prohibitions, 
and  expurgatorious  indexes,  your  gags  and  snaf- 
fles, your  proud  Imprimaturs  not  to  be  obtained 
without  the  shallow  surview,  but  not  shallow  hand 
of  some  mercenary,  narrow-souled,  and  illiterate 
chaplain;  when  liberty  of  speaking,  than  which 
nothing  is  more  sweet  to  man,  was  girded  and 
strait-laced  almost  to  a  broken-winded  phthisic,  if 
•now  at  a  good  time,  our  time  of  parliament,  the 
Tery  jubilee  and  resurrection  of  the  state,  if  now 
the  concealed,  the  aggrieved,  and  long-persecuted 
truth,  could  not  be  suffered  to  speak ;  and  though 
she  burst  out  with  some  efficacy  of  words,  could 
not  be  excused  after  such  an  injurious  strangle  of 
silence,  nor  avoid  the  censure  of  libelling,  it  were 
hard,  it  were  something  pinching  in  a  kingdom  of 
free  spirits.  Some  princes  and  great  statists  have 
thought  it  a  prime  piece  of  necessary  policy  to 
thrust  themselves  under  disguise  into  a  popular 
throng,  to  stand  the  night  long  under  eaves  of 


DEFENCE  AGAINST  SMECTYMNUUS.     67 

houses,  and  low  windows,  that  they  might  hear 
everywhere  the  utterances  of  private  breasts,  and 
amongst  them  find  out  the  precious  gem  of  truth, 
as  amongst  the  numberless  pebbles  of  the  shore ; 
whereby  they  might  be  the  abler  to  discover,  and 
avoid,  that  deceitful  and  close-couched  evil  of  flat- 
tery that  ever  attends  them,  and  misleads  them, 
and  might  skilfully  know  how  to  apply  the  several 
redresses  to  each  maladv  of  state,  without  trust- 

tf 

ing  the  disloyal  information  of  parasites  and  syco- 
phants :  whereas  now  this  permission  of  free  writ- 
ing, were  there  no  good  else  in  it,  yet  at  some 
times  thus  licensed,  is  such  an  unripping,  such  an 
anatomy  of  the  shyest  and  tenderest  particular 
truths,  as  makes  not  only  the  whole  nation  in  many 
points  the  wiser,  but  also  presents  and  carries 
home  to  princes,  men  most  remote  from  vulgar 
concourse,  such  a  full  insight  of  every  lurking 
evil,  or  restrained  good  among  the  commons,  as 
that  they  shall  not  need  hereafter,  in  old  cloaks 
and  false  beards,  to  stand  to  the  courtesy  of  a 

night- walking  cudgeller  for  eaves-dropping 

Who  could  be  angry,  therefore,  but  those  that  are 
guilty,  with  these  free-spoken  and  plain-hearted 
men,  that  are  the  eyes  of  their  country,  and  the 
prospective  glasses  of  their  prince  ?  .  .  .  . 

But  he  that  shall  bind  himself  to  make  antiqui- 
ty his  rule,  if  he  read  but  part,  besides  the  diffi- 
culty of  choice,  his  rule  is  deficient,  and  utterly 
unsatisfying;  for  there  may  be  other  writers  of 


68     FROM  ANIMADVERSIONS  UPON  THE 

another  mind  which  he  hath  not  seen ;  and  if  he 
undertake  all,  the  length  of  man's  life  cannot  ex- 
tend to  give  him  a  full  and  requisite  knowledge 
of  what  was  done  in  antiquity.  Why  do  we 
therefore  stand  worshipping  and  admiring  this  un- 
active  and  lifeless  Colossus,  that,  like  a  carved 
giant  terribly  menacing  to  children  and  weaklings, 
lifts  up  his  club,  but  strikes  not,  and  is  subject  to 
the  muting  of  every  sparrow?  If  you  let  him 
rest  upon  his  basis,  he  may  perhaps  delight  the 
eyes  of  some  with  his  huge  and  mountainous 
bulk,  and  the  quaint  workmanship  of  his  massy 
limbs ;  but  if  ye  go  about  to  take  him  in  pieces, 
ye  mar  him ;  and  if  you  think,  like  pigmies,  to 
turn  and  wind  him  whole  as  he  is,  besides  your 
vain  toil  and  sweat,  he  may  chance  to  fall  upon 

your  own  heads 

We  shah1  adhere  close  to  the  Scriptures  of  God, 
which  he  hath  left  us  as  the  just  and  adequate 
measure  of  truth,  fitted  and  proportioned  to  the 
diligent  study,  memory,  and  use  of  every  faithful 
man,  whose  every  part  consenting,  and  making  up 
the  harmonious  symmetry  of  complete  instruction, 
is  able  to  set  out  to  us  a  perfect  man  of  God,  or 
bishop  thoroughly  furnished  to  all  the  good  works 
of  his  charge :  and  with  this  weapon,  without 
stepping  a  foot  farther,  we  shall  not  doubt  to  bat- 
ter and  throw  down  your  Nebuchadnezzar's  im- 
age, and  crumble  it  like  the  chaff  of  the  summer 
threshing-floors,  as  well  the  gold  of  those  apostolic 


DEFENCE  AGAINST  SMECTYMNUUS.      69 

successors  that  you  boast  of,  as  your  Constantinian 
silver,  together  with  the  iron,  the  brass,  and  the  clay 

of  those  muddy  and  strawy  ages  that  follow 

"  They  cannot  name  any  man  in  this  nation, 
that  ever  contradicted  episcopacy,  till  this  pres- 
ent age."  What  an  overworn  and  bedridden  ar- 
gument is  this!  the  last  refuge  ever  of  old  false- 
hood, and  therefore  a  good  sign,  I  trust,  that  your 
castle  cannot  hold  out  long.  This  was  the  plea  of 
Judaism  and  idolatry  against  Christ  and  his  Apos- 
tles, of  Papacy  against  Reformation  ;  and  perhaps 
to  the  frailty  of  flesh  and  blood  in  a  man  destitute 
of  better  enlightening  may  for  some  while  be  par- 
donable :  for  what  has  fleshly  apprehension  other 
to  subsist  by  than  succession,  custom,  and  visibil- 
ity ;  which  only  hold,  if  in  his  weakness  and 
blindness  he  be  loath  to  lose,  who  can  blame  ? 
But  in  a  Protestant  nation,  that  should  have 
thrown  off  these  tattered  rudiments  long  ago, 
after  the  many  strivings  of  God's  Spirit,  and  our 
fourscore  years'  vexation  of  him  in  this  our  wilder- 
ness since  Reformation  began  to  urge  these  rot- 
ten principles,  and  twit  us  with  the  present  age, 
which  is  to  us  an  age  of  ages  wherein  God  is  man- 
ifestly come  down  among  us  to  do  some  remarka- 
ble good  to  our  church  or  state,  is  as  if  a  man 
should  tax  the  renovating  and  reingendering  Spirit 
of  God  with  innovation,  and  that  new  creature 
for  an  upstart  novelty ;  yea,  the  New  Jerusalem, 
which,  without  your  admired  link  of  succession, 


70     FROM  ANIMADVERSIONS  UPON  THE 

descends  from  heaven,  could  not  escape  some  such 
like  censure.  If  you  require  a  further  answer,  it 
will  not  misbecome  a  Christian  to  be  either  more 
magnanimous  or  more  devout  than  Scipio  was, 
who,  instead  of  other  answer  to  the  frivolous 
accusations  of  Petilius  the  Tribune,  "  This  day, 
Romans,"  saith  he,  "  I  fought  with  Hannibal 
prosperously;  let  us  all  go  and  thank  the  gods 
that  gave  us  so  great  a  victory  "  ;  in  like  manner 
will  we  now  say,  not  caring  otherwise  to  answer 
this  unprotestantlike  objection :  In  this  age,  Brit- 
ons, God  hath  reformed  his  Church  after  many 
hundred  years  of  Popish  corruption;  in  this  age 
he  hath  freed  us  from  the  intolerable  yoke  of  pre- 
lates and  papal  discipline ;  in  this  age  he  hath 
renewed  our  protestation  against  all  those  yet  re- 
maining dregs  of  superstition.  Let  us  all  go, 
every  true  protested  Briton,  throughout  the  three 
kingdoms,  and  render  thanks  to  God  the  Father 
of  light,  and  Fountain  of  heavenly  grace,  and  to 
His  Son  Christ  our  Lord,  leaving  this  remonstrant 
and  his  adherents  to  their  own  designs;  and  let 
us  recount,  even  here  without  delay,  the  patience 
and  long-suffering  that  God  hath  used  towards  our 
blindness  and  hardness  time  after  time.  For  he 
being  equally  near  to  his  whole  creation  of  man- 
kind, and  of  free  power  to  turn  his  beneficent  and 
fatherly  regard  to  what  region  or  kingdom  he 
pleases,  hath  yet  ever  had  this  island  under  the 
special  indulgent  eye  of  his  providence,  and  pity 


DEFENCE  AGAINST  SMECTYMNUUS.      71 

ing  us  the  first  of  all  other  nations,  after  he  had 
decreed  to  purify  and  renew  his  Church  that  lay 
wallowing  in  idolatrous  pollutions,  sent  first  to 
us  a  healing  messenger  to  touch  softly  our  sores, 
and  carry  a  gentle  hand  over  our  wounds  :  he 
knocked  once  and  twice,  and  came  again  opening 
our  drowsy  eyelids  leisurely  by  that  glimmering 
light  which  Wickliff  and  his  followers  dispersed ; 
and  still  taking  off  by  degrees  the  inveterate 
scales  from  our  nigh  perished  sight,  purged  also 
our  deaf  ears,  and  prepared  them  to  attend  his 
second  warning  trumpet  in  our  grandsire's  days. 
How  else  could  they  have  been  able  to  have  re- 
ceived the  sudden  assault  of  his  reforming  Spirit, 
warring  against  human  principles,  and  carnal 
sense,  the  pride  of  flesh,  that  still  cried  up  an- 
tiquity, custom,  canons,  councils,  and  laws ;  and 
cried  down  the  truth  for  novelty,  schism,  profane- 
ness,  and  sacrilege  ?  whenas  we  that  have  lived 
so  long  in  abundant  light,  besides  the  sunny  re- 
flection of  all  the  neighboring  churches,  have  yet 
our  hearts  riveted  with  those  old  opinions,  and  so 
obstructed  and  benumbed  with  the  same  fleshy 
reasonings,  which  in  our  forefathers  soon  melted 
and  gave  way,  against  the  morning  beam  of  Ref- 
ormation. If  God  had  left  undone  this  whole 
work,  so  contrary  to  flesh  and  blood,  till  these 
times,  how  should  we  have  yielded  to  his  heavenly 
call,  had  we  been  taken,  as  they  were,  in  the 
starkness  of  our  ignorance ;  that  yet,  after  all 


72      FROM  ANIMADVERSIONS  UPON  THE 

these  spiritual  preparatives  and  purgations,  have 
our  earthly  apprehensions  so  clammed  and  furred 
with  the  old  leaven  ?  O  if  we  freeze  at  noon  after 
their  early  thaw,  let  us  fear  lest  the  sun  forever 
hide  himself,  and  turn  his  orient  steps  from  our 
ingrateful  horizon,  justly  condemned  to  be  eter- 
nally benighted.  Which  dreadful  judgment,  O 
Thou  the  ever-begotten  Light  and  perfect  Image 
of  the  Father !  intercede,  may  never  come  upon 
us,  as  we  trust  thou  hast ;  for  thou  hast  opened 
our  difficult  and  sad  times,  and  given  us  an  unex- 
pected breathing  after  our  long  oppressions :  thou 
hast  done  justice  upon  those  that  tyrannized  over 
us,  while  some  men  wavered  and  admired  a  vain 
shadow  of  wisdom  in  a  tongue  nothing  slow  to  ut- 
ter guile,  though  thou  hast  taught  us  to  admire 
only  that  which  is  good,  and  to  count  that  only 
praiseworthy,  which  is  grounded  upon  thy  divine 
precepts.  Thou  hast  discovered  the  plots,  and 
frustrated  the  hopes,  of  all  the  wicked  in  the  land, 
and  put  to  shame  the  persecutors  of  thy  Church  : 
thou  hast  made  our  false  prophets  to  be  found  a 
lie  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people,  and  chased  them 
with  sudden  confusion  and  amazement  before  the 
redoubled  brightness  of  thy  descending  cloud,  that 
now  covers  thy  tabernacle.  Who  is  there  that 
cannot  trace  thee  now  in  thy  beamy  walk  through 
the  midst  of  thy  sanctuary,  amidst  those  golden 
candlesticks,  which  have  long  suffered  a  dimness 
amongst  us  through  the  violence  of  those  that  had 


DEFENCE  AGAINST  SMECTYMNUUS.      73 

seized  them,  and  were  more  taken  with  the  men- 
tion of  their  gold  than  of  their  starry  light ;  teach- 
ing the  doctrine  of  Balaam,  to  cast  a  stumbling- 
block  before  thy  servants,  commanding  them  to 
eat  things  sacrificed  to  idols,  and  forcing  them 
to  fornication  ?  Come  therefore,  O  Thou  that 
hast  the  seven  stars  in  thy  right  hand,  appoint 
thy  chosen  priests  according  to  their  orders  and 
courses  of  old,  to  minister  before  thee,  and  duly 
to  press  and  pour  out  the  consecrated  oil  into  thy 
holy  and  ever-burning  lamps.  Thou  hast  sent 
out  the  spirit  of  prayer  upon  thy  servants  over  all 
the  land  to  this  effect,  and  stirred  up  their  vows 
as  the  sound  of  many  waters  about  thy  throne. 
Every  one  can  say,  that  now  certainly  thou  hast 
visited  this  land,  and  hast  not  forgotten  the  utmost 
corners  of  the  earth,  in  a  time  when  men  had 
thought  that  thou  wast  gone  up  from  us  to  the 
furthest  end  of  the  heavens,  and  hadst  left  to  do 
marvellously  among  the  sons  of  these  last  ages. 
O  perfect  and  accomplish  thy  glorious  acts !  for 
men  may  leave  their  works  unfinished,  but  thou 
art  a  God,  thy  nature  is  perfection:  shouldst 
thou  bring  us  thus  far  onward  from  Egypt  to  de- 
stroy us  in  this  wilderness,  though  we  deserve, 
yet  thy  great  name  would  suffer  in  the  rejoicing 
of  thine  enemies  and  the  deluded  hope  of  all  thy 
servants.  When  thou  hast  settled  peace  in  the 
Church,  and  righteous  judgment  in  the  kingdom, 
then  shall  all  thy  saints  address  their  voices  of  joy 

4 


74     FROM  ANIMADVERSIONS  UPON  THE 

and  triumph  to  thee,  standing  on  the  shore  of 
that  Red  Sea  into  which  our  enemies  had  almost 
driven  us.  And  he  that  now  for  haste  snatches 
up  a  plain  ungarnished  present  as  a  thank-offering 
to  thee,  which  could  not  be  deferred  in  regard  of 
thy  so  many  late  deliverances  wrought  for  us  one 
upon  another,  may  then  perhaps  take  up  a  harp 
and  sing  thee  an  elaborate  song  to  generations. 
In  that  day  it  shall  no  more  be  said,  as  in  scorn, 
this  or  that  was  never  held  so  till  this  present  age, 
when  men  have  better  learnt  that  the  times  and 
seasons  pass  along  under  thy  feet,  to  go  and  come 
at  thy  bidding:  and  as  thou  didst  dignify  our 
fathers'  days  with  many  revelations  above  all  the 
foregoing  ages,  since  thou  tookest  the  flesh,  so 
thou  canst  vouchsafe  to  us  (though  unworthy)  as 
large  a  portion  of  thy  Spirit  as  thou  pleasest :  for 
who  shall  prejudice  thy  all-governing  will  ?  seeing 
the  power  of  thy  grace  is  not  passed  away  with 
the  primitive  times,  as  fond  and  faithless  men  im- 
agine, but  thy  kingdom  is  now  at  hand,  and  thou 
standing  at  the  door.  Come  forth  out  of  thy  royal 
chambers,  O  Prince  of  all  the  kings  of  the  earth ! 
put  on  the  visible  robes  of  thy  imperial  majesty, 
take  up  that  unlimited  sceptre  which  thy  Almighty 
Father  hath  bequeathed  thee ;  for  now  the  voice 
of  thy  bride  calls  thee,  and  all  creatures  sigh  to  be 

renewed 

As  for  ordination,  what  is  it,  but  the  laying  on 
of  hands,  an  outward  sign  or  symbol  of  admission  ? 


DEFENCE  AGAINST  SMECTYMNUUS.     75 

It  creates  nothing,  it  confers  nothing;  it  is  the 
inward  calling  of  God  that  makes  a  minister,  and 
his  own  painful  study  and  diligence  that  manures 

and  improves  his  ministerial  gifts 

We  cannot  therefore  do  better  than  to  leave 
this  care  of  ours  to  God :  he  can  easily  send  la- 
borers into  his  harvest,  that  shall  not  cry,  Give, 
give,  but  be  contented  with  a  moderate  and  be- 
seeming allowance ;  nor  will  he  suffer  true  learn- 
ing to  be  wanting,  where  true  grace  and  our 
obedience  to  him  abounds:  for  if  he  give  us  to 
know  him  aright,  and  to  practise  this  our  knowl- 
edge in  right-established  discipline,  how  much 
more  will  he  replenish  us  with  all  abilities  in 
tongues  and  arts,  that  may  conduce  to  his  glory 
and  our  good  !  He  can  stir  up  rich  fathers  to  be- 
stow exquisite  education  upon  their  children,  and 
so  dedicate  them  to  the  service  of  the  Gospel ;  he 
can  make  the  sons  of  nobles  his  ministers,  and 
princes  to  be  his  Nazarites ;  for  certainly  there  is 
no  employment  more  honorable,  more  worthy  to 
take  up  a  great  spirit,  more  requiring  a  generous 
and  free  nurture,  than  to  be  the  messenger  and 
herald  of  heavenly  truth  from  God  to  man,  and, 
by  the  faithful  work  of  holy  doctrine,  to  procreate 
a  number  of  faithful  men,  making  a  kind  of  crea- 
tion like  to  God's,  by  infusing  his  spirit  and  like- 
ness into  them,  to  their  salvation,  as  God  did  into 
him;  arising  to  what  climate  soever  he  turn  him, 
like  that  Sun  of  Righteousness  that  sent  him,  with 


76      DEFENCE  AGAINST  SMECTYMNUUS. 

healing  in  his  wings,  and  new  light  to  break  in 
upon  the  chill  and  gloomy  hearts  of  his  hearers, 
raising  out  of  darksome  barrenness  a  delicious  and 
fragrant  spring  of  saving  knowledge,  and  good 
works. 


FROM 

AN   APOLOGY   FOR   SMECTYMNUUS. 

!OR  doubtless  that  indeed  according  to 
art  is  most  eloquent,  which  turns  and 
approaches  nearest  to  nature,  from 
whence  it  came  ;  and  they  express  na- 
ture best,  who  in  their  lives  least  wander  from  her 
safe  leading,  which  may  be  called  regenerate  rea- 
son. So  that  how  he  should  be  truly  eloquent 
who  is  not  withal  a  good  man,  I  see  not 

For  as  in  teaching,  doubtless,  the  spirit  of  meek- 
ness is  most  powerful,  so  are  the  meek  only  fit 
persons  to  be  taught :  as  for  the  proud,  the  obsti- 
nate, and  false  doctors  of  men's  devices,  be  taught 
they  will  not,  but  discovered  and  laid  open  they 
must  be. 

For  how  can  they  admit  of  teaching,  who  have 
the  condemnation  of  God  already  upon  them  for 
refusing  divine  instruction  ?  That  is,  to  be  filled 
with  their  own  devices,  as  in  the  Proverbs  we 
may  read:  therefore  we  may  safely  imitate  the 
method  that  God  uses,  "with  the  froward  to  be 


78  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

froward,  and  to  throw  scorn  upon  the  scorner," 
whom  if  anything,  nothing  else  will  heal 

Those  morning  haunts  are  where  they  should 
be,  at  home ;  not  sleeping,  or  concocting  the  sur- 
feits of  an  irregular  feast,  but  up  and  stirring,  in 
winter  often  ere  the  sound  of  any  bell  awake  men 
to  labor,  or  to  devotion ;  in  summer  as  oft  with 
the  bird  that  first  rouses,  or  not  much  tardier,  to 
read  good  authors,  or  cause  them  to  be  read,  till 
the  attention  be  weary,  or  memory  have  its  full 
fraught:  then,  with  useful  and  generous  labors 
preserving  the  body's  health  and  hardiness  to  ren- 
der lightsome,  clear,  and  not  lumpish  obedience  to 
the  mind,  to  the  cause  of  religion,  and  our  coun- 
try's liberty,  when  it  shall  require  firm  hearts  in 
sound  bodies  to  stand  and  cover  their  stations, 
rather  than  to  see  the  ruin  of  our  protestation,  and 
the  enforcement  of  a  slavish  life 

But  because  as  well  by  this  upbraiding  to  me 
the  bordelloes,  as  by  other  suspicious  glancings  in 
his  book,  he  would  seem  privily  to  point  me  out  to 
his  readers,  as  one  whose  custom  of  life  were  not 
honest,  but  licentious,  I  shall  entreat  to  be  borne 
with  though  I  digress;  and  in  a  way  not  often 
trod,  acquaint  ye  with  the  sum  of  my  thoughts  in 
this  matter,  through  the  course  of  my  years  and 
studies :  although  I  am  not  ignorant  how  hazard- 
ous it  will  be  to  do  this  under  the  nose  of  the 
envious,  as  it  were  in  skirmish  to  change  the  com- 
pact order,  and  instead  of  outward  actions,  to 
bring  inmost  thoughts  into  front 


FOR   SMECTYMNUUS.  79 

I  had  my  time,  readers,  as  others  have,  who 
have  good  learning  bestowed  upon  them,  to  be 
sent  to  those  places  where  the  opinion  was,  it 
might  be  soonest  attained ;  and  as  the  manner  is, 
was  not  unstudied  in  those  authors  which  are  most 
commended.  Whereof  some  were  grave  orators 
and  historians,  whose  matter  methought  I  loved 
indeed,  but  as  my  age  then  was,  so  I  understood 
them;  others  were  the  smooth  elegiac  poets, 
whereof  the  schools  are  not  scarce,  whom  both 
for  the  pleasing  sound  of  their  numerous  writing, 
which  in  imitation  I  found  most  easy,  and  most 
agreeable  to  nature's  part  in  me,  and  for  their 
matter,  which  what  it  is,  there  be  few  who  know 
not,  I  was  so  allured  to  read,  that  no  recreation 
came  to  me  better  welcome.  For  that  it  was  then 
those  years  with  me  which  are  excused,  though 
they  be  least  severe,  I  may  be  saved  the  labor  to 
remember  ye.  Whence  having  observed  them  to 
account  it  the  chief  glory  of  their  wit,  in  that 
they  were  ablest  to  judge,  to  praise,  and  by  that 
could  esteem  themselves  worthiest  to  love  those 
high  perfections,  which  under  one  or  other  name 
they  took  to  celebrate ;  I  thought  with  myself  by 
every  instinct  and  presage  of  nature,  which  is  not 
wont  to  be  false,  that  what  emboldened  them  to 
this  task,  might  with  such  diligence  as  they  used 
embolden  me ;  and  that  what  judgment,  wit,  or 
elegance  was  my  share,  would  herein  best  appear, 
and  best  value  itself,  by  how  much  more  wisely, 


80  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

and  with  more  love  of  virtue  I  should  choose 
(let  rude  ears  be  absent)  the  object  of  not  unlike 
praises.  .  .  .  By  the  firm  settling  of  these  persua- 
sions, I  became,  to  my  best  memory,  so  much  a 
proficient,  that  if  I  found  those  authors  anywhere 
speaking  unworthy  things  of  themselves,  or  un- 
chaste of  those  names  which  before  they  had  ex- 
tolled; this  effect  it  wrought  with  me,  from  that 
time  forward  their  art  I  still  applauded,  but  the 
men  I  deplored ;  and  above  them  all,  preferred  the 
two  famous  renowners  of  Beatrice  and  Laura, 
who  never  write  but  honor  of  them  to  whom  they 
devote  their  verse,  displaying  sublime  and  pure 
thoughts,  without  transgression.  And  long  it  was 
not  after,  when  I  was  confirmed  in  this  opinion, 
that  he  who  would  not  be  frustrate  of  his  hope  to 
write  well  hereafter  in  laudable  things,  ought  him- 
self to  be  a  true  poem ;  that  is,  a  composition  and 
pattern  of  the  best  and  honorablest  things ;  not 
presuming  to  sing  high  praises  of  heroic  men,  or 
famous  cities,  unless  he  have  in  himself  the  expe- 
rience and  the  practice  of  all  that  which  is  praise- 
worthy. These  reasonings,  together  with  a  cer- 
tain niceness  of  nature,  an  honest  haughtiness  and 
self-esteem,  either  of  what  I  was  or  what  I  might 
be  (which  let  envy  call  pride),  and  lastly  that  mod- 
esty, whereof,  though  not  in  the  title-page,  yet 
here  I  may  be  excused  to  make  some  beseeming 
profession ;  all  these  uniting  the  supply  of  their 
natural  aid  together,  kept  me  still  above  those  low 


FOR   SMECTYMNUUS.  81 

descents  of  mind,  beneath  which  he  must  deject 
and  plunge  himself,  that  can  agree  to  salable  and 
unlawful  prostitutions. 

Next  (for  hear  me  out  now,  readers),  that  I 
may  tell  ye  whither  my  younger  feet  wandered ; 
I  betook  me  among  those  lofty  fables  and  roman- 
ces which  recount  in  solemn  cantos  the  deeds  of 
knighthood  founded  by  our  victorious  kings,  and 
from  hence  had  in  renown  over  all  Christendom. 
There  I  read  it  in  the  oath  of  every  knight,  that 
he  should  defend,  to  the  expense  of  his  best  blood, 
or  of  his  life,  if  it  so  befell  him,  the  honor  and 
chastity  of  virgin  or  matron ;  from  whence  even, 
then  I  learned  what  a  noble  virtue  chastity  sure 
must  be,  to  the  defence  of  which  so  many  wor- 
thies, by  such  a  dear  adventure  of  themselves, 
had  sworn.  And  if  I  found  in  the  story  after- 
ward, any  of  them,  by  word  or  deed,  breaking 
^that  oath,  I  judged  it  the  same  fault  of  the  poet, 
as  that  which  is  attributed  to  Homer,  to  have 
written  indecent  things  of  the  gods.  Only  this 
my  mind  gave  me,  that  every  free  and  gentle 
spirit,  without  that  oath,  ought  to  be  born  a 
knight,  nor  needed  to  expect  a  gilt  spur,  or  the 
laying  of  a  sword  upon  his  shoulder  to  stir  him  up 
both  by  his  counsel  and  his  arms,  to  secure  and 
protect  the  weakness  of  any  attempted  chastity. 
So  that  even  these  books,  which  to  many  others 
have  been  the  fuel  of  wantonness  and  loose  living, 
I  cannot  think  how,  unless  by  divine  indulgence, 

4*  , 


82  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

proved  to  me  so  many  incitements,  as  you  have 
heard,  to  the  love  and  steadfast  observation  of 
that  virtue  which  abhors  the  society  of  bordelloes. 

Thus,  from  the  laureat  fraternity  of  poets,  riper 
years  and  the  ceaseless  round  of  study  and  read- 
ing led  me  to  the  shady  spaces  of  philosophy ;  but 
chiefly  to  the  divine  volumes  of  Plato,  and  his 
equal  Xenophon :  where,  if  I  should  tell  ye  what 
I  learnt  of  chastity  and  love,  —  I  mean  that  which 
is  truly  so,  —  whose  charming  cup  is  only  virtue, 
which  she  bears  in  her  hand  to  those  who  are 
worthy  (the  rest  are  cheated  with  a  thick  intoxi- 
cating potion,  which  a  certain  sorceress,  the  abuser 
of  love's  name,  carries  about)  ;  and  how  the  first 
and  chiefest  office  of  love  begins  and  ends  in  the 
soul,  producing  those  happy  twins  of  her  divine 
generation,  knowledge  and  virtue.  With  such  ab- 
stracted sublimities  as  these,  it  might  be  worth 
your  listening,  readers,  as  I  may  one  day  hope  to 
have  ye  in  a  still  time,  when  there  shall  be  no 
chiding 

Last  of  all,  not  in  time,  but  as  perfection  is  last, 
that  care  was  ever  had  of  me,  with  my  earliest 
capacity,  not  to  be  negligently  trained  in  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  Christian  religion :  this  that  I  have 
hitherto  related,  hath  been  to  show,  that  though 
Christianity  had  been  but  slightly  taught  me,  yet 
a  certain  reservedness  of  natural  disposition,  and 
moral  discipline,  learnt  out  of  the  noblest  philoso- 
phy, was  enough  to  keep  me  in  disdain  of  far  less 


FOR   SMECTYMNUUS.  83 

incontinences  than  this  of  the  bordello.  But  hav- 
ing had  the  doctrine  of  Holy  Scripture  unfolding 
those  chaste  and  high  mysteries,  with  timeliest 
care  infused,  that  "  the  body  is  for  the  Lord,  and 
the  Lord  for  the  body " ;  thus  also  I  argued  to 
myself,  that  if  unchastity  in  a  woman,  whom  St. 
Paul  terms  the  glory  of  man,  be  such  a  scandal 
and  dishonor,  then  certainly  in  a  man,  who  is  both 
the  image  and  glory  of  God,  it  must,  though  com- 
monly not  so  thought,  be  much  more  deflouring 
and  dishonorable  ;  in  that  he  sins  both  against  his 
own  body,  which  is  the  perfecter  sex,  and  his  own 
glory,  which  is  in  the  woman ;  and,  that  which  is 
worst,  against  the  image  and  glory  of  God,  which 
is  in  himself.  Nor  did  I  slumber  over  that  place 
expressing  such  high  rewards  of  ever  accompany- 
ing the  Lamb,  with  those  celestial  songs  to  others 
inapprehensible,  but  not  to  those  who  were  not  de- 
filed with  women,  which  doubtless  means  fornica- 
tion ;  for  marriage  must  not  be  called  a  defile- 
ment. 

Thus  large  I  have  purposely  been,  that  if  I 
have  been  justly  taxed  with  this  crime,  it  may 
come  upon  me,  after  all  this  my  confession,  with  a 
tenfold  shame :  but  if  I  have  hitherto  deserved  no 
such  opprobrious  word,  or  suspicion,  I  may  hereby 
engage  myself  now  openly  to  the  faithful  observa- 
tion of  what  I  have  professed 

If  therefore  the  question  were  in  oratory, 
whether  a  vehement  vein  throwing  out  indigna- 


84  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

tion  or  scorn  upon  an  object  that  merits  it,  were 
among  the  aptest  ideas  of  speech  to  be  allowed, 
it  were  my  work,  and  that  an  easy  one,  to  make 
it  clear  both  by  the  rules  of  best  rhetoricians,  and 
the  famousest  examples  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
orations.  But  since  the  religion  of  it  is  disputed, 
and  not  the  art,  I  shall  make  use  only  of  such 
reasons  and  authorities  as  religion  cannot  except 
against.  It  will  be  harder  to  gainsay,  than  for  me 
to  evince,  that  in  the  teaching  of  men  diversely 
tempered,  different  ways  are  to  be  tried.  The 
Baptist,  we  know,  was  a  strict  man,  remarkable 
for  austerity  and  set  order  of  life.  Our  Saviour, 
who  had  all  gifts  in  him,  was  Lord  to  express 
his  indoctrinating  power  in  what  sort  him  best 
seemed ;  sometimes  by  a  mild  and  familiar  con- 
verse ;  sometimes  with  plain  and  impartial  home- 
speaking,  regardless  of  those  whom  the  auditors 
might  think  he  should  have  had  in  more  respect ; 
otherwhile,  with  bitter  and  ireful  rebukes,  if  not 
teaching,  yet  leaving  excuseless  those  his  wilful 
impugners. 

What  was  all  in  him,  was  divided  among  many 
others,  the  teachers  of  his  church ;  some  to  be  se- 
vere and  ever  of  a  sad  gravity,  that  they  may  win 
such,  and  check  sometimes  those  who  be  of  nature 
over-confident  and  jocund ;  others  were  sent  more 
cheerful,  free,  and  still  as  it  were  at  large,  in  the 
midst  of  an  untrespassing  honesty ;  that  they  who 
are  so  tempered,  may  have  by  whom  they  might 


FOR  SMECTYMNUUS,  85 

be  drawn  to  salvation,  and  they  who  are  too 
scrupulous,  and  dejected  of  spirit,  might  be  often 
strengthened  with  wise  consolations  and  reviv- 
ings :  no  man  being  forced  wholly  to  dissolve  that 
groundwork  of  nature  which  God  created  in  him, 
the  sanguine  to  empty  out  all  his  sociable  liveli- 
ness, the  choleric  to  expel  quite  the  unsinning 
predominance  of  his  anger ;  but  that  each  radical 
humor  and  passion,  wrought  upon  and  corrected 
as  it  ought,  might  be  made  the  proper  mould  and 
foundation  of  every  man's  peculiar  gifts  and  vir- 
tues. Some  also  were  indued  with  a  staid  mod- 
eration and  soundness  of  argument,  to  teach  and 
convince  the  rational  and  sober-minded ;  yet  not 
therefore  that  to  be  thought  the  only  expedient 
course  of  teaching,  for  in  times  of  opposition, 
when  either  against  new  heresies  arising,  or  old 
corruptions  to  be  reformed,  this  cool  unpassionate 
mildness  of  positive  wisdom  is  not  enough  to  damp 
and  astonish  the  proud  resistance  of  carnal  and 
false  doctors,  then  (that  I  may  have  leave  to  soar 
awhile  as  the  poets  use)  Zeal,  whose  substance  is 
ethereal,  arming  in  complete  diamond,  ascends  his 
fiery  chariot,  drawn  with  two  blazing  meteors, 
figured  like  beasts,  but  of  a  higher  breed  than  any 
the  zodiac  yields,  resembling  two  of  those  four 
which  Ezekiel  and  St.  John  saw ;  the  one  visaged 
like  a  lion,  to  express  power,  high  authority,  and 
indignation ;  the  other  of  countenance  like  a  man, 
to  cast  derision  and  scorn  upon  perverse  and 


86  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

fraudulent  seducers:  with  these  the  invincible 
warrior,  Zeal,  shaking  loosely  the  slack  reins, 
drives  over  the  heads  of  scarlet  prelates,  and  such 
as  are  insolent  to  maintain  traditions,  bruising 
their  stiff  necks  under  his  flaming  wheels. 

Thus  did  the  true  prophets  of  old  combat  with 
the  false :  thus  Christ  himself,  the  fountain  of 
meekness,  found  acrimony  enough  to  be  still  gall- 
ing and  vexing  the  prelatical  pharisees.  But  ye 
will  say,  these  had  immediate  warrant  from  God 
to  be  thus  bitter ;  and  I  say,  so  much  the  plainer 
is  it  proved  that  there  may  be  a  sanctified  bitter- 
ness against  the  enemies  of  truth.  Yet  that  ye 
may  not  think  inspiration  only  the  warrant  there- 
of, but  that  it  is  as  any  other  virtue  of  moral  and 
general  observation,  the  example  of  Luther  may 
stand  for  all,  whom  God  made  choice  of  before 
others  to  be  of  highest  eminence  and  power  in 
reforming  the  Church;  who,  not  of  revelation,  but 
of  judgment,  writ  so  vehemently  against  the  chief 
defenders  of  old  untruths  in  the  Romish  church, 
that  his  own  friends  and  favorers  were  many  times 
offended  with  the  fierceness  of  his  spirit ;  yet  he 
being  cited  before  Charles  the  Fifth  to  answer  for 
his  books,  and  having  divided  them  into  three 
sorts,  whereof  one  was  of  those  which  he  had 
sharply  written,  refused,  though  upon  deliberation 
given  him,  to  retract  or  unsay  any  word  therein. 
....  Yea,  he  defends  his  eagerness,  as  being 
"  of  an  ardent  spirit,  and  one  who  could  not  write 


FOR  SMECTYMNUUS.  87 

a  dull  style  " :  and  affirmed  "  he  thought  it  God's 
will  to  have  the  invention  of  men  thus  laid  open, 
seeing  that  matters  quietly  handled  were  quickly 

forgot." 

Now  that  the  confutant  may  also  know  as  he 
desires,  what  force  of  teaching  there  is  sometimes 
in  laughter,  I  shall  return  him  in  short,  that 
laughter,  being  one  way  of  answering  "  a  fool  ac- 
cording to  his  folly,"  teaches  two  sorts  of  persons : 
first,  the  fool  himself,  "  not  to  be  wise  in  his  own 
conceit,"  as  Solomon  affirms  ;  which  is  certainly  a 
great  document  to  make  an  unwise  man  know 
himself.  Next,  it  teacheth  the  hearers,  inasmuch 
as  scorn  is  one  of  those  punishments  which  belong 
to  men  carnally  wise,  which  is  oft  in  Scripture  de- 
clared ;  for  when  such  are  punished,  "  the  simple 
are  thereby  made  wise,"  if  Solomon's  rule  be  true. 
And  I  would  ask,  to  what  end  Eliah  mocked  the 
false  prophets  ?  was  it  to  show  his  wit,  or  to  fulfil 
his  humor?  Doubtless  we  cannot  imagine  that 
great  servant  of  God  had  any  other  end,  in  all 
which  he  there  did,  but  to  teach  and  instruct  the 
poor  misled  people.  And  we  may  frequently 
read,  that  many  of  the  martyrs  in  the  midst  of 
their  troubles  were  not  sparing  to  deride  and  scoff 
their  superstitious  persecutors.  Now  may  the 
confutant  advise  again  with  Sir  Francis  Bacon, 
whether  Eliah  and  the  martyrs  did  well  to  turn 
religion  into  a  comedy  or  satire ;  "  to  rip  up  the 
wounds  of  idolatry  and  superstition  with  a  laugh- 


88  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

ing  countenance":  so  that  for  pious  gravity  the 
author  here  is  matched  and  overmatched,  and  for 
wit  and  morality  in  one  that  follows : 

"  Laughing  to  teach  the  truth 
What  hinders  ?  as  some  teachers  give  to  boys 
Junkets  and  knacks,  that  they  may  learn  apace." 

Thus  Flaccus  in  his  first  satire,  and  his  tenth : 

"  Jesting  decides  great  things 
Stronglier  and  better  oft  than  earnest  can." 

I  could  urge  the  same  out  of  Cicero  and  Sen- 
eca, but  he  may  content  him  with  this.  And 
henceforward,  if  he  can  learn,  may  know  as  well 
what  are  the  bounds  and  objects  of  laughter  and 
vehement  reproof,  as  he  hath  known  hitherto  how 
to  deserve  them  both 

Now  although  it  be  a  digression  from  the  ensu- 
ing matter,  yet  because  it  shall  not  be  said  I  am 
apter  to  blame  others  than  to  make  trial  myself, 
and  that  I  may,  after  this  harsh  discord,  touch 
upon  a  smoother  string,  awhile  to  entertain  my- 
self and  him  that  list  with  some  more  pleasing 
fit,  and  not  the  least  to  testify  the  gratitude  which 
I  owe  to  those  public  benefactors  of  their  country, 
for  the  share  I  enjoy  in  the  common  peace  and 
good  by  their  incessant  labors ;  I  shall  be  so 
troublesome  to  this  disclaimer  for  once,  as  to 
show  him  what  he  might  have  better  said  in  their 
praise ;  wherein  I  must  mention  only  some  few 
things  of  many,  for  more  than  that  to  a  digres- 


FOR  SMECTYMNUUS.  89 

sion  may  not  be  granted.  Although  certainly 
their  actions  are  worthy  not  thus  to  be  spoken  of 
by  the  way,  yet  if  hereafter  it  befall  me  to  attempt 
something  more  answerable  to  their  great  merits, 
I  perceive  how  hopeless  it  will  be  to  reach  the 
height  of  their  praises  at  the  accomplishment  of 
that  expectation  that  waits  upon  their  noble  deeds, 
the  unfmishing  whereof  already  surpasses  what 
others  before  them  have  left  enacted  with  their 
utmost  performance  through  many  ages.  And  to ' 
the  end  we  may  be  confident  that  what  they  do 
proceeds  neither  from  uncertain  opinion  nor  sud- 
den counsels,  but  from  mature  wisdom,  deliberate 
virtue,  and  dear  affection  to  the  public  good,  I 
shall  begin  at  that  which  made  them  likeliest  in 
the  eyes  of  good  men  to  effect  those  things  for  the 
recovery  of  decayed  religion  and  the  common- 
wealth, which  they  who  were  best  minded  had 
long  wished  for,  but  few,  as  the  times  then  were 
desperate,  had  the  courage  to  hope  for. 

First,  therefore,  the  most  of  them  being  either 
of  ancient  and  high  nobility,  or  at  least  of  known 
and  well-reputed  ancestry,  which  is  a  great  ad- 
vantage towards  virtue  one  way,  but  in  respect  of 
wealth,  ease,  and  flattery,  which  accompany  a  nice 
and  tender  education,  is  as  much  a  hinderance  an- 
other way :  the  good  which  lay  before  them  they 
took,  in  imitating  the  worthiest  of  their  progeni- 
tors: and  the  evil  which  assaulted  their  younger 
years  by  the  temptation  of  riches,  high  birth,  and 


90  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

that  usual  bringing  up,  perhaps  too  favorable  and 
too  remiss,  through  the  strength  of  an  inbred 
goodness,  and  with  the  help  of  divine  grace,  that 
had  marked  them  out  for  no  mean  purposes,  they 
nobly  overcame.  Yet  had  they  a  greater  danger 
to  cope  with ;  for  being  trained  up  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  learning,  and  sent  to  those  places  which 
were  intended  to  be  the  seed-plots  of  piety  and 
the  liberal  arts,  but  were  become  the  nurseries  of 
superstition  and  empty  speculation,  as  they  were 
prosperous  against  those  vices  which  grow  upon 
youth  out  of  idleness  and  superfluity,  so  were  they 
happy  in  working  off  the  harms  of  their  abused 
studies  and  labors ;  correcting  by  the  clearness  of 
their  own  judgment  the  errors  of  their  misinstruc- 
tion,  and  were,  as  David  was,  wiser  than  their 
teachers.  And  although  their  lot  fell  into  such 
times,  and  to  be  bred  in  such  places,  where,  if 
they  chanced  to  be  taught  anything  good,  or  of 
their  own  accord  had  learnt  it,  they  might  see  that 
presently  untaught  them  by  the  custom  and  ill- 
example  of  their  elders ;  so  far  in  all  probability 
was  their  youth  from  being  misled  by  the  single 
power  of  example,  as  their  riper  years  were 
known  to  be  unmoved  with  the  baits  of  prefer- 
ment, and  undaunted  for  any  discouragement 
and  terror  which  appeared  often  to  those  that 
loved  religion  and  their  native  liberty ;  which 
two  things  God  hath  inseparably  knit  together, 
and  hath  disclosed  to  us,  that  they  who  seek  to 


FOR  SMECTYMNUUS.  91 

corrupt  our  religion  are  the  same  that  would  en- 
thrall our  civil  liberty. 

Thus  in  the  midst  of  all  disadvantages  and  dis- 
respects, (some  also  at  last  not  without  imprison- 
ment and  open  disgraces  in  the  cause  of  their 
country,)  having  given  proof  of  themselves  to  be 
better  made  and  framed  by  nature  to  the  love  and 
practice  of  virtue,  than  others  under  the  holiest 
precepts  and  best  examples  have  been  headstrong 
and  prone  to  vice ;  and  having,  in  all  the  trials  of 
a  firm  ingrafted  honesty,  not  oftener  buckled  in 
the  conflict  than  given  every  opposition  the  foil ; 
this  moreover  was  added  by  favor  from  Heaven, 
as  an  ornament  and  happiness  to  their  virtue,  that 
it  should  be  neither  obscure  in  the  opinion  of 
men,  nor  eclipsed  for  want  of  matter  equal  to  il- 
lustrate itself;  God  and  man  consenting  in  joint 
approbation  to  choose  them  out  as  worthiest  above 
others  to  be  both  the  great  reformers  of  the 
Church,  and  the  restorers  of  the  commonwealth. 
Nor  did  they  deceive  that  expectation  which  with 
the  eyes  and  desires  of  their  country  was  fixed 
upon  them :  for  no  sooner  did  the  force  of  so  much 
united  excellence  meet  in  one  globe  of  brightness 
and  efficacy,  but  encountering  the  dazzled  resist- 
ance of  tyranny,  they  gave  not  over,  though  their 
enemies  were  strong  and  subtle,  till  they  had  laid 
her  grovelling  upon  the  fatal  block ;  with  one 
stroke  winning  again  our  lost  liberties  and  char- 
ters, which  our  forefathers,  after  so  many  battles, 
could  scarce  maintain. 


92  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

And  meeting  next,  as  I  may  so  resemble,  with 
the  second  life  of  tyranny,  (for  she  was  grown  an 
ambiguous  monster,  and  to  be  slain  in  two  shapes,) 
guarded  with  superstition,  which  hath  no  small 
power  to  captivate  the  minds  of  men  otherwise 
most  wise,  they  neither  were  taken  with  her  mi- 
tred hypocrisy,  nor  terrified  with  the  push  of  her 
bestial  horns,  but  breaking  them,  immediately 
forced  her  to  unbend  the  pontifical  brow,  and 
recoil;  which  repulse  only  given  to  the  prelates 
(that  we  may  imagine  how  happy  their  removal 
would  be)  was  the  producement  of  such  glorious 
effects  and  consequences  in  the  church,  that  if  I 
should  compare  them  with  those  exploits  of  high- 
est fame  in  poems  and  panegyrics  of  old,  I  am 
certain  it  would  but  diminish  and  impair  their 
worth,  who  are  now  my  argument ;  for  those  an- 
cient worthies  delivered  men  from  such  tyrants  as 
were  content  to  enforce  only  an  outward  obedi- 
ence, letting  the  mind  be  as  free  as  it  could ;  but 
these  have  freed  us  from  a  doctrine  of  tyranny, 
that  offered  violence  and  corruption  even  to  the 
inward  persuasion.  They  set  at  liberty  nations 
and  cities  of  men  good  and  bad  mixed  together; 
but  these,  opening  the  prisons  and  dungeons, 
called  out  of  darkness  and  bonds  the  elect  martyrs 
and  witnesses  of  their  Redeemer.  They  restored 
the  body  to  ease  and  wealth;  but  these,  the  op- 
pressed conscience  to  that  freedom  which  is  the 
chief  prerogative  of  the  Gospel ;  taking  off  those 


FOR  SMECTYMNUUS.  93 

cruel  burdens,  imposed  not  by  necessity,  as  other 
tyrants  are  wont,  for  the  safeguard  of  their  lives, 
but  laid  upon  our  necks  by  the  strange  wilfulness 
and  wantonness  of  a  needless  and  jolly  persecutor, 
called  Indifference.  Lastly,  some  of  those  ancient 
deliverers  have  had  immortal  praises  for  preserv- 
ing their  citizens  from  a  famine  of  corn.  But 
these,  by  this  only  repulse  of  an  unholy  hierar- 
chy, almost  in  a  moment,  replenished  with  saving 
knowledge  their  country,  nigh  famished  for  want 
of  that  which  should  feed  their  souls.  All  this 
being  done  while  two  armies  in  the  field  stood 
gazing  on :  the  one  in  reverence  of  such  nobleness 
quietly  gave  back  and  dislodged ;  the  other,  spite 
of  the  unruliness  and  doubted  fidelity  in  some 
regiments,  was  either  persuaded  or  compelled  to 
disband  and  retire  home. 

With  such  a  majesty  had  their  wisdom  begirt 
itself,  that  whereas  others  had  levied  war  to  sub- 
due a  nation  that  sought  for  peace,  they,  sitting 
here  in  peace,  could  so  many  miles  extend  the 
force  of  their  single  words  as  to  overawe  the  dis- 
solute stoutness  of  an  armed  power,  secretly  stirred 
up  and  almost  hired  against  them.  And  having 
by  a  solemn  protestation  vowed  themselves  and 
the  kingdom  anew  to  God  and  his  service,  and 
by  a  prudent  foresight  above  what  their  fathers 
thought  on,  prevented  the  dissolution  and  frustra- 
ting of  their  designs  by  an  untimely  breaking  up ; 
notwithstanding  all  the  treasonous  plots  against 


94  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

them,  all  the  rumors  either  of  rebellion  or  inva- 
sion, they  have  not  been  yet  brought  to  change 
their  constant  resolution,  ever  to  think  fearlessly 
of  their  own  safeties,  and  hopefully  of  the  com- 
monwealth :  which  hath  gained  them  such  an  ad- 
miration from  all  good  men  that  now  they  hear  it 
as  their  ordinary  surname,  to  be  saluted  the  fathers 
of  their  country,  and  sit  as  gods  among  daily  pe- 
titions and  public  thanks  flowing  in  upon  them. 
Which  doth  so  little  yet  exalt  them  in  their  own 
thoughts,  that,  with  all  gentle  affability  and  cour- 
teous acceptance,  they  both  receive  and  return  that 
tribute  of  thanks  which  is  tendered  them ;  testify- 
ing their  zeal  and  desire  to  spend  themselves  as  it 
were  piecemeal  upon  the  grievances  and  wrongs 
of  their  distressed  nation ;  insomuch  that  the 
meanest  artisans  and  laborers,  at  other  times  also 
women,  and  often  the  younger  sort  of  servants 
assembling  with  their  complaints,  and  that  some- 
times in  a  less  humble  guise  than  for  petitioners, 
have  gone  with  confidence,  that  neither  their 
meanness  would  be  rejected,  nor  their  simplicity 
contemned ;  nor  yet  their  urgency  distasted  either 
by  the  dignity,  wisdom,  or  moderation  of  that  su- 
preme senate ;  nor  did  they  depart  unsatisfied. 

And,  indeed,  if  we  consider  the  general  concourse 
of  suppliants,  the  free  and  ready  admittance,  the 
willing  and  speedy  redress  in  what  is  possible,  it 
will  not  seem  much  otherwise,  than  as  if  some  di- 
vine commission  from  heaven  were  descended  to 


FOR   SMECTYMNUUS.  95 

take  into  hearing  and  commiseration  the  long  and 
remediless  afflictions  of  this  kingdom,  were  it  not 
that  none  more  than  themselves  labor  to  remove 
and  divert  such  thoughts,  lest  men  should  place 
too  much  confidence  in  their  persons,  still  refer- 
ring us  and  our  prayers  to  Him  that  can  grant  all, 
and  appointing  the  monthly  return  of  public  fasts 
and  supplications.  Therefore  the  more  they  seek 
to  humble  themselves,  the  more  does  God,  by 
manifest  signs  and  testimonies,  visibly  honor  their 
proceedings ;  and  sets  them  as  the  mediators  of 
this  his  covenant,  which  he  offers  us  to  renew. 
Wicked  men  daily  conspire  their  hurt,  and  it 
comes  to  nothing ;  rebellion  rages  in  our  Irish 
province,  but  with  miraculous  and  lossless  victo- 
ries of  few  against  many,  is  daily  discomfited  and 
broken ;  if  we  neglect  not  this  early  pledge  of 
God's  inclining  towards  us,  by  the  slackness  of 
our  needful  aids.  And  whereas  at  other  times 
we  count  it  ample  honor  when  God  vouchsafes  to 
make  man  the  instrument  and  subordinate  worker 
of  His  gracious  will,  such  acceptation  have  their 
prayers  found  with  him,  that  to  them  he  hath 
been  pleased  to  make  himself  the  agent  and  im- 
mediate performer  of  their  desires;  dissolving 
their  difficulties  when  they  are  thought  inexplica- 
ble, cutting  out  ways  for  them  where  no  passage 
could  be  seen ;  as  who  is  there  so  regardless  of 
divine  Providence,  that  from  late  occurrences  will 
not  confess  ?  If,  therefore,  it  be  so  high  a  grace 


96  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

when  men  are  preferred  to  be  but  the  inferior  offi- 
cers of  good  things  from  God,  what  is  it  when 
God  himself  condescends,  and  works  with  his 
own  hands  to  fulfil  the  requests  of  men  ?  Which 
I  leave  with  them  as  the  greatest  praise  that  can 
belong  to  human  nature :  not  that  we  should  think 
they  are  at  the  end  of  their  glorious  progress,  but 
that  they  will  go  on  to  follow  his  Almighty  lead- 
ing, who  seems  to  have  thus  covenanted  with 
them  ;  that  if  the  will  and  the  endeavor  shall  be 
theirs,  the  performance  and  the  perfecting  shall  be 
his.  Whence  only  it  is  that  I  have  not  feared, 
though  many  wise  men  have  miscarried  in  prais- 
ing great  designs  before  the  utmost  event,  because 
I  see  who  is  their  assistant,  who  is  their  confed- 
erate, who  hath  engaged  his  omnipotent  arm  to 
support  and  crown  with  success  their  faith,  their 
fortitude,  their  just  and  magnanimous  actions,  till 
he  have  brought  to  pass  all  that  expected  good 
which,  his  servants  trust,  is  in  his  thoughts  to 
bring  upon  this  land  in  the  full  and  perfect  refor- 
mation of  his  Church 

I  shall  not  decline  to  speak  my  opinion  in  the 
controversy  next  moved,  "  whether  the  people  may 
be  allowed  for  competent  judges  of  a  minister's 
ability."  For  how  else  can  be  fulfilled  that  which 
God  hath  promised,  to  pour  out  such  abundance  of 
knowledge  upon  all  sorts  of  men  in  the  times  of 
the  Gospel  ?  How  should  the  people  examine  the 
doctrine  which  is  taught  them,  as  Christ  and  his 


FOR   SMECTYMNUUS.  97 

apostles  continually  bid  them  do?  How  should 
they  "  discern  and  beware  of  false  prophets,  and 
try  every  spirit,"  if  they  must  be  thought  unfit  to 
judge  of  the  minister's  abilities?  The  apostles 
ever  labored  to  persuade  the  Christian  flock  that 
they  "  were  called  in  Christ  to  all  perfectness  in 
spiritual  knowledge,  and  full  assurance  of  under- 
standing in  the  mystery  of  God." 

We  need  not  the  authority  of  Pliny  brought  to 
tell  us,  the  people  cannot  judge  of  a  minister :  yet 
that  hurts  not.  For  as  none  can  judge  of  a  paint- 
er or  statuary  but  he  who  is  an  artist,  that  is, 
either  in  the  practice  or  theory,  which  is  often  sep- 
arated from  the  practice,  and  judges  learnedly 
without  it ;  so  none  can  judge  of  a  Christian  teach- 
er but  he  who  hath  either  the  practice  or  the 
knowledge  of  Christian  religion,  though  not  so  art- 
fully digested  in  him.  And  who  almost  of  the 
meanest  Christians  hath  not  heard  the  Scriptures 
often  read  from  his  childhood,  besides  so  many  ser- 
mons and  lectures,  more  in  number  than  any  stu- 
dent hath  heard  in  philosophy,  whereby  he  may 
easily  attain  to  know  when  he  is  wisely  taught, 
and  when  weakly  ?  whereof,  three  ways  I  remem- 
ber are  set  down  in  Scripture ;  the  one  is  to  read 
often  that  best  of  books  written  to  this  purpose, 
that  not  the  wise  only,  but  the  simple  and  igno- 
rant, may  learn  by  them ;  the  other  way  to  know 
of  a  minister  is,  by  the  life  he  leads,  whereof  the 
5  o 


98  FROM  AN  APOLOGY 

meanest  understanding  may  be  apprehensive. 
The  last  way  to  judge  aright  in  this  point  is,  when 
he  who  judges,  lives  a  Christian  life  himself. 
Which  of  these  three  will  the  confuter  affirm  to 
exceed  the  capacity  of  a  plain  artisan  ?  And  what 
reason  then  is  there  left,  wherefore  he  should  be 
denied  his  voice  in  the  election  of  his  minister,  as 
not  thought  a  competent  discerner  ?  .  .  .  . 

For  me,  readers,  although  I  cannot  say  that  I 
am  utterly  untrained  in  those  rules  which  best 
rhetoricians  have  given,  or  unacquainted  with 
those  examples  which  the  prime  authors  of  elo- 
quence have  written  in  any  learned  tongue ;  yet 
true  eloquence  I  find  to  be  none,  but  the  serious 
and  hearty  love  of  truth :  and  that  whose  mind  so- 
ever is  fully  possessed  with  a  fervent  desire  to 
know  good  things,  and  with  the  dearest  charity  to 
infuse  the  knowledge  of  them  into  others,  when 
such  a  man  would  speak,  his  words,  (by  what  I 
can  express,)  like  so  many  nimble  and  airy  servi- 
tors, trip  about  him  at  command,  and  in  well-or- 
dered files,  as  he  would  wish,  fall  aptly  into  their 
own  places 

Therefore  must  the  ministers  of  Christ  not  be 
over  rich  or  great  in  the  world,  because  their  call- 
ing is  spiritual,  not  secular ;  because  they  have  a 
special  warfare,  which  is  not  to  be  entangled  with 
many  impediments  ;  because  their  master,  Christ, 
gave  them  this  precept,  and  set  them  this  ex- 
ample, told  them  this  was  the  mystery  of  his 


FOR   SMECTYMNUUS. 


99 


coming,  by  mean  things  and  persons  to  subdue 
mighty  ones  ;  and  lastly,  because  a  middle  es- 
tate is  most  proper  to  the  office  of  teaching, 
whereas  higher  dignity  teaches  far  less,  and 
blinds  the  teacher. 


FROM  THE 

TRACTATE   ON   EDUCATION. 

AM  long  since  persuaded,  Master  Hart- 
lib,  that  to  say  or  do  aught  worth  mem- 
ory and  imitation,  no  purpose  or  respect 
should  sooner  move  us  than  simply  the 

love  of  God,  and  of  mankind 

The  end  then  of  learning  is  to  repair  the  ruins 
of  our  first  parents  by  regaining  to  know  God 
aright,  and  out  of  that  knowledge  to  love  him,  to 
imitate  him,  to  be  like  him,  as  we  may  the  nearest 
by  possessing  our  souls  of  true  virtue,  which  being 
united  to  the  heavenly  grace  of  faith,  makes  up  the 
highest  perfection.  But  because  our  understanding 
cannot  in  this  body  found  itself  but  on  sensible 
things,  nor  arrive  so  clearly  to  the  knowledge  of 
God  and  things  invisible,  as  by  orderly  conning  over 
the  visible  and  inferior  creature,  the  same  method  is 
necessarily  to  be  followed  in  all  discreet  teaching. 
And  seeing  every  nation  affords  not  experience  and 
tradition  enough  for  all  kinds  of  learning,  therefore 
we  are  chiefly  taught  the  languages  of  those  peo- 


FROM  THE  TRACTATE  ON  EDUCATION.  101 

pie  who  have  at  any  time  been  most  industrious 
after  wisdom  ;  so  that  language  is  but  the  instru- 
ment conveying  to  us  things  useful  to  be  known. 
And  though  a  linguist  should  pride  himself  to  have 
all  the  tongues  that  Babel  cleft  the  world  into,  yet 
if  he  have  not  studied  the  solid  things  in  them,  as 
well  as  the  words  and  lexicons,  he  were  nothing  so 
much  to  be  esteemed  a  learned  man,  as  any  yeo- 
man or  tradesman  competently  wise  in  his  mother 
dialect  only. 

Hence  appear  the  many  mistakes  which  have 
made  learning  generally  so  unpleasing  and  so  un- 
successful ;  first,  we  do  amiss  to  spend  seven  or 
eight  years  merely  in  scraping  together  so  much 
miserable  Latin  and  Greek,  as  might  be  learned 
otherwise  easily  and  delightfully  in  one  year.  And 
that  which  casts  our  proficiency  therein  so  much 
behind,  is  our  time  lost  partly  in  too  oft  idle  vacan- 
cies given  both  to  schools  and  universities ;  partly  in 
a  preposterous  exaction,  forcing  the  empty  wits  of 
children  to  compose  themes,  verses,  and  orations, 
which  are  the  acts  of  ripest  judgment,  and  the  fi- 
nal work  of  a  head  filled  by  long  reading  and  observ- 
ing, with  elegant  maxims  and  copious  invention. 
These  are  not  matters  to  be  wrung  from  poor  strip- 
lings, like  blood  out  of  the  nose,  or  the  plucking  of 
untimely  fruit.  Besides  the  ill  habit  which  they 
get  of  wretched  barbarizing  against  the  Latin  and 
Greek  idiom,  with  their  untutored  Anglicisms, 
odious  to  be  read,  yet  not  to  be  avoided  without  a 


102  FROM  THE   TRACTATE 

well-continued  and  judicious  conversing  among 
pure  authors  digested,  which  they  scarce  taste. 
Whereas,  if  after  some  preparatory  grounds  of 
speech  by  their  certain  forms  got  into  memory, 
they  were  led  to  the  praxis  thereof  in  some  chosen 
short  book,  lessoned  thoroughly  to  them,  they  might 
then  forthwith  proceed  to  learn  the  substance  of 
good  things,  and  arts  in  due  order,  which  would 
bring  the  whole  language  quickly  into  their  power. 
This  I  take  to  be  the  most  rational  and  most  profit- 
able way  of  learning  languages,  and  whereby  we 
may  best  hope  to  give  account  to  God  of  our  youth 
spent  herein. 

And  for  the  usual  method  of  teaching  arts,  I 
deem  it  to  be  an  old  error  of  universities,  not  yet 
well  recovered  from  the  scholastic  grossness  of 
barbarous  ages,  that  instead  of  beginning  with  arts 
most  easy,  (and  those  be  such  as  are  most  obvious 
to  the  sense,)  they  present  their  young  unmatric- 
ulated  novices,  at  first  coming,  with  the  most  in- 
tellective abstractions  of  logic  and  metaphysics ;  so 
that  they  having  but  newly  left  those  grammatic 
flats  and  shallows,  where  they  stuck  unreasonably 
to  learn  a  few  words  with  lamentable  construction, 
and  now  on  the  sudden  transported  under  another 
climate,  to  be  tossed  and  turmoiled  with  their  un- 
ballasted wits  in  fathomless  and  unquiet  deeps  of 
controversy,  do  for  the  most  part  grow  into  hatred 
and  contempt  of  learning,  mocked  and  deluded  all 
this  while  with  ragged  notions  and  babblements, 


ON  EDUCATION.  103 

while  they  expected  worthy  and  delightful  knowl- 
edge ;  till  poverty  or  youthful  years  call  them  im- 
portunately their  several  ways,  and  hasten  them, 
with  the  sway  of  friends,  either  to  an  ambitious 
and  mercenary,  or  ignorantly  zealous  divinity: 
some  allured  to  the  trade  of  law,  grounding  their 
purposes  not  on  the  prudent  and  heavenly  con- 
templation of  justice  and  equity,  which  was  never 
taught  them,  but  on  the  promising  and  pleasing 
thoughts  of  litigious  terms,  fat  contentions,  and 
flowing  fees;  others  betake  them  to  state  affairs, 
with  souls  so  unprincipled  in  virtue  and  true  gen- 
erous breeding,  that  flattery  and  court-shifts  and 
tyrannous  aphorisms  appear  to  them  the  highest 
points  of  wisdom;  instilling  their  barren  hearts 
with  a  conscientious  slavery ;  if,  as  I  rather  think, 
it  be  not  feigned.  Others,  lastly,  of  a  more  de- 
licious and  airy  spirit,  retire  themselves  (knowing 
no  better)  to  the  enjoyments  of  ease  and  luxury, 
living  out  their  days  in  feast  and  jollity ;  which  in- 
deed is  the  wisest  and  safest  course  of  all  these, 
unless  they  were  with  more  integrity  undertaken. 
And  these  are  the  errors,  and  these  are  the  fruits 
of  misspending  our  prime  youth  at  the  schools  and 
universities  as  we  do,  either  in  learning  mere 
words,  or  such  things  chiefly  as  were  better  un- 
learned. 

I  shall  detain  you  now  no  longer  in  the  demon- 
stration of  what  we  should  not  do,  but  straight 
conduct  you  to  a  hillside,  where  I  will  point  you 


104  FROM  THE   TRACTATE 

out  the  right  path  of  a  virtuous  and  noble  educa- 
tion ;  laborious  indeed  at  the  first  ascent,  but  else 
so  smooth,  so  green,  so  full  of  goodly  prospect, 
and  melodious  sounds  on  every  side,  that  the  harp 
of  Orpheus  was  not  more  charming.  I  doubt  not 
but  ye  shall  have  more  ado  to  drive  our  dullest 
and  laziest  youth,  our  stocks  and  stubs,  from  the 
infinite  desire  of  such  a  happy  nurture,  than  we 
have  now  to  hale  and  drag  our  choicest  and  hope- 
fullest  wits  to  that  asinine  feast  of  sowthistles  and 
brambles,  which  is  commonly  set  before  them  as 
all  the  food  and  entertainment  of  their  tenderest 
and  most  docible  age. 

I  call  therefore  a  complete  and  generous  edu- 
cation, that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly, 
skilfully,  and  magnanimously  all  the  offices,  both 
private  and  public,  of  peace  and  war 

But  here  the  main  skill  and  groundwork  will 
be,  to  temper  them  such  lectures  and  explana- 
tions, upon  every  opportunity,  as  may  lead  and 
draw  them  in  willing  obedience,  inflamed  with  the 
study  of  learning  and  the  admiration  of  virtue ; 
stirred  up  with  high  hopes  of  living  to  be  brave 
men,  and  worthy  patriots,  dear  to  God,  and  fa- 
mous to  all  ages.  That  they  may  despise  and 
scorn  all  their  childish  and  ill-taught  qualities,  to 
delight  in  manly  and  liberal  exercises,  which  he 
who  hath  the  art  and  proper  eloquence  to  catch 
them  with,  what  with  mild  and  effectual  persua- 
sions, and  what  with  the  intimation  of  some  fear, 


ON  EDUCATION.  105 

if  need  be,  but  chiefly  by  his  own  example^ 
might  in  a  short  space  gain  them  to  an  incredible 
diligence  and  courage,  infusing  into  their  young 
breasts  such  an  ingenuous  and  noble  ardor,  as 
would  not  fail  to  make  many  of  them  renowned 
and  matchless  men 

By  this  time,  years  and  good  general  precepts 
will  have  furnished  them  more  distinctly  with  that 
act  of  reason  which  in  ethics  is  called  Proairesis ; 
that  they  may  with  some  judgment  contemplate 
upon  moral  good  and  evil.  Then  will  be  required 
a  special  reinforcement  of  constant  and  sound  in- 
doctrinating, to  set  them  right  and  firm,  instruct- 
ing them  more  amply  in  the  knowledge  of  virtue 
and  the  hatred  of  vice ;  while  their  young  and 
pliant  affections  are  led  through  all  the  moral 
works  of  Plato,  Xenophon,  Cicero,  Plutarch,  La- 
ertius,  and  those  Locrian  remnants ;  but  still  to  be 
reduced  in  their  nightward  studies  wherewith  they 
close  the  day's  work,  under  the  determinate  sen- 
tence of  David  or  Solomon,  or  the  Evangelists  and 
apostolic  Scriptures 

The  interim  of  unsweating  themselves  regular- 
ly,'and  convenient  rest  before  meat,  may,  both 
with  profit  and  delight,  be  taken  up  in  recreating 
and  composing  their  travailed  spirits  with  the  sol- 
emn and  divine  harmonies  of  music,  heard  or 
learned :  either  whilst  the  skilful  organist  plies  his 
grave  and  fancied  descant  in  lofty  fugues,  or  the 
whole  symphony  with  artful  and  unimaginable 

5* 


106  FROM  THE  TRACTATE  ON  EDUCATION. 

touches  adorn  and  grace  the  well-studied  chords 
of  some  choice  composer;  sometimes  the  lute  or 
soft  organ-stop  waiting  on  elegant  voices,  either  to 
religious,  martial,  or  civil  ditties;  which,  if  wise 
men  and  prophets  be  not  extremely  out,  have  a 
great  power  over  dispositions  and  manners,  to 
smooth  and  make  them  gentle  from  rustic  harsh- 
ness and  distempered  passions 

Thus,  Mr.  Hartlib,  you  have  a  general  view  in 
writing,  as  your  desire  was,  of  that  which  at  sev- 
eral times  I  have  discoursed  with  you  concerning 

the  best  and  noblest  way  of  education Only 

I  believe  that  this  is  not  a  bow  for  every  man  to 
shoot  in,  that  counts  himself  a  teacher ;  but  will 
require  sinews  almost  equal  to  those  which  Homer 
gave  Ulysses ;  yet  I  am  withal  persuaded  that  it 
may  prove  much  more  easy  in  the  assay,  than  it 
now  seems  at  distance,  and  much  more  illustrious ; 
liowbeit,  not  more  difficult  than  I  imagine,  and 
that  imagination  presents  me  with  nothing  but  what 
is  very  happy,  and  very  possible,  according  to  best 
wishes ;  if  God  have  so  decreed,  and  this  age  have 
spirit  and  capacity  enough  to  apprehend. 


FROM 


AREOPAGITICA 


is  not  the  liberty  which  we  can 
hope,  that  no  grievance  ever  should 
arise  in  the  commonwealth :  -that  let 
no  man  in  this  world  expect  ;  but 
when  complaints  are  freely  heard,  deeply  consid- 
ered, and  speedily  reformed,  then  is  the  utmost 
bound  of  civil  liberty  obtained  that  wise  men  look 

for 

I  deny  not,  but  that  it  is  of  greatest  concern- 
ment in  the  Church  and  commonwealth,  to  have 
a  vigilant  eye  how  books  demean  themselves,  as 
well  as  men ;  and  thereafter  to  confine,  imprison, 
and  do  sharpest  justice  on  them  as  malefactors  ; 
for  books  are  not  absolutely  dead  things,  but  do  I 
contain  a  progeny  of  life  in  them  to  be  as  active  as  j 
that  soul  was  whose  progeny  they  are  ;  nay,  they 
do  preserve  as  in  a  vial  the  purest  efficacy  and  ex- 
traction of  that  living  intellect  that  bred  them.  I 
know  they  are  as  lively,  and  as  vigorously  produc- 
tive, as  those  fabulous  dragon's  teeth ;  and  being 


108  FROM  AREOPAG1TICA 

sown  up  and  down,  may  chance  to  spring  up  armed 
men.  And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  unless  Avariness 
be  used,  as  good  almost  kill  a  man  as  kill  a  good 
book  :  who  kills  a  man  kills  a  reasonable  creature, 
God's  image  ;  but  he  who  destroys  a  good  book, 
kills  reason  itself,  kills  the  image  of  God,  as  it 
were,  in  the  eye.  Many  a  man  lives  a  burden  to 
the  earth ;  but  a  good  book  is  the  precious  life- 
blood  of  a  master-spirit,  embalmed  and  treasured 
up  on  purpose  to  a  life  beyond  life.  It  is  true,  no 
age  can  restore  a  life,  whereof,  perhaps,  there  is  no 
great  loss  ;  and  revolutions  of  ages  do  not  oft  re- 
cover the  loss  of  a  rejected  truth,  for  the  want  of 
which  whole  nations  fare  the  worse.  We  should 
be  wary,  therefore,  what  persecution  we  raise 
against  the  living  labors  of  public  men,  how  we 
spill  that  seasoned  life  of  man,  preserved  and 
)  stored  up  in  books ;  since  we  see  a  kind  of  homi- 
cide may  be  thus  committed,  sometimes  a  martyr- 
dom ;  and  if  it  extend  to  the  whole  impression,  a 
kind  of  massacre,  whereof  the  execution  ends  not  in 
the  slaying  of  an  elemental  life,  but  strikes  at  the 
ethereal  and  fifth  essence,  the  breath  of  reason  it- 
self;  slays  an  immortality  rather  than  a  life 

Martin  the  Fifth,  by  his  bull,  not  only  prohibit- 
ed, but  was  the  first  that  excommunicated  the  read- 
ing of  heretical  books  :  for  about  that  time  Wick- 

o  * 

liffe  and  Husse  growing  terrible,  were  they  who 
first  drove  the  papal  court  to  a  stricter  policy  of 
prohibiting.  Which  course  Leo  the  Tenth  and  his 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  109 

successors  followed,  until  the  Council  of  Trent 
and  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  engendering  together, 
brought  forth  or  perfected  these  catalogues  and  ex- 
purging  indexes,  that  rake  through  the  entrails  of 
many  an  old  good  author,  with  a  violation  worse 
than  any  could  be  offered  to  his  tomb. 

Nor  did  they  stay  in  matters  heretical,  but  any 
subject  that  was  not  to  their  palate,  they  either 
condemned  in  a  prohibition,  or  had  it  straight  into 
the  new  purgatory  of  an  index.     To  fill  up  the, 
measure  of  encroachment,  their  last  invention  was 
to  ordain  that  no  book,  pamphlet,  or  paper  should 
be  printed  (as  if  St.  Peter  had  bequeathed  them 
the  keys  of  the  press  also  as  well  as  of  Paradise)  j 
unless  it  were  approved  and  licensed  under  the 
hands  of  two  or  three  gluttonous  friars 

And  thus  ye  have  the  inventors  and  the  original 
of  book  licensing  ripped  up  and  drawn  as  lineally 
as  any  pedigree.  We  have  it  not,  that  can  be 
heard  of,  from  any  ancient  state,  or  polity,  or 
church,  nor  by  any  statute  left  us  by  our  ancestors 
elder  or  later ;  nor  from  the  modern  custom  of  any 
reformed  city  or  church  abroad ;  but  from  the  most 
anti-Christian  council,  and  the  most  tyrannous  in- 
quisition that  ever  inquired.  Till  then  books  were 
ever  as  freely  admitted  into  the  world  as  any  other 
birth ;  the  issue  of  the  brain  was  no  more  stifled 
.than  the  issue  of  the  womb  :  no  envious  Juno  sat 
cross-legged  over  the  nativity  of  any  man's  intel- 
lectual offspring :  but  if  it  proved  a  monster,  who 


110  FROM  AREOPAGITICA. 

denies  but  that  it  was  justly  burnt,  or  sunk  into 
the  sea  ?  But  that  a  book,  in  worse  condition  than 
a  peccant  soul,  should  be  to  stand  before  a  jury  ere 
it  be  born  to  the  world,  and  undergo  yet  in  dark- 
ness the  judgment  of  Radamanth  and  his  col- 
leagues, ere  it  can  pass  the  ferry  backward  into 
light,  was  never  heard  before,  till  that  mysterious 
iniquity,  provoked  and  troubled  at  the  first  en- 
trance of  reformation,  sought  out  new  limboes  and 
new  hells  wherein  they  might  include  our  books 

also  within  the  number  of  their  damned 

Not  to  insist  upon  the  examples  of  Moses,  Dan- 
iel, and  Paul,  who  were  skilful  in  all  the  learning 
of  the  Egyptians,  Chaldeans,  and  Greeks,  which 
could  not  probably  be  without  reading  their  books 
of  all  sorts,  in  Paul  especially,  who  thought  it  no 
defilement  to  insert  into  Holy  Scripture  the  sen- 
tences of  three  Greek  poets,  and  one  of  them  a 
tragedian  ;  the  question  was  notwithstanding  some- 
times controverted  among  the  primitive  doctors, 
but  with  great  odds  on  that  side  which  affirmed 
it  both  lawful  and  profitable,  as  was  then  evidently 
iperceived,  when  Julian  the  Apostate,  and  subtlest 
Venemy  to  our  faith,  made  a  decree  forbidding 
^Christians  the  study  of  heathen  learning:  for, 
said  he,  they  wound  us  with  our  own  weapons,  and 
with  our  own  arts  and  sciences  they  overcome  us. 
And  indeed  the  Christians  were  put  so  to  their 
shifts  by  this  crafty  means,  and  so  much  in  danger 
to  decline  into  all  ignorance,  that  the  two  Appolli- 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  HI 

narii  were  fain,  as  a  man  may  say,  to  coin  all  the 
seven  liberal  sciences  out  of  the  Bible,  reducing  it 
into  divers  forms  of  orations,  poems,  dialogues, 
even  to  the  calculating  of  a  new  Christian  gram- 
mar  

"  To  the  pure,  ah1  things  are  pure  " ;  not  only 
meats  and  drinks,  but  ah1  kind  of  knowledge, 

7  O     ' 

whether  of  good  or  evil:  the  knowledge  cannot 
defile,  nor  consequently  the  books,  if  the  will  and 
conscience  be  not  defiled.  For  books  are  as  meats 
and  viands  are ;  some  of  good,  some  of  evil  sub- 
stance ;  and  yet  God  in  that  unapocryphal  vision 
said  without  exception,  "  Rise,  Peter,  kill  and 
eat " ;  leaving  the  choice  to  each  man's  discretion. 
Wholesome  meats  to  a  vitiated  stomach  differ  little 
or  nothing  from  unwholesome ;  and  best  books  to  a 
naughty  mind  are  not  unapplicable  to  occasions  of 
evil.  Bad  meats  will  scarce  breed  good  nourish- 
ment in  the  healthiest  concoction ;  but  herein  the 
difference  is  of  bad  books,  that  they  to  a  discreet 
and  judicious  reader  serve  in  many  respects  to  dis- 
cover, to  confute,  to  forewarn,  and  to  illustrate 

Good  and  evil  we  know  in  the  field  of  this 
world  grow  up  together  almost  inseparably ;  and 
the  knowledge  of  good  is  so  involved  and  inter- 
woven with  the  knowledge  of  evil,  and  in  so  many 
cunning  resemblances  hardly  to  be  discerned,  that 
those  confused  seeds  which  were  imposed  upon 
Psyche  as  an  incessant  labor  to  cull  out,  and  sort 
asunder,  were  not  more  intermixed.  It  was  from 


112  FROM  AREOPAGITICA. 

out  the  rind  of  one  apple  tasted,  that  the  knowl- 
edge of  good  and  evil,  as  two  twins  cleaving 
together,  leaped  forth  into  the  world.  And  per- 
haps this  is  that  doom  which  Adam  fell  into  of 
knowing  good  and  evil ;  that  is  to  say,  of  know- 
ing good  by  evil. 

As  therefore  the  state  of  man  now  is  ;  what  wis- 
dom can  there  be  to  choose,  what  continence  to 
forbear,  without  the  knowledge  of  evil  ?  He  that 
can  apprehend  and  consider  vice  with  all  her  baits 
and  seeming  pleasures,  and  yet  abstain,  and  yet 
distinguish,  and  yet  prefer  that  which  is  truly  bet- 
ter j  he  is  the  true  warfaring  Christian.  I  cannot 
praise  a  fugitive  and  cloistered  virtue  unexercised 
and  unbreathed,  that  never  sallies  out  and  seeks 

Iher  adversary,  but  slinks  out  of  the  race,  where 
that  immortal  garland  is  to  be  run  for,  not  without 
dust  and  heat.  Assuredly  we  bring  not  innocence 
into  the  world,  we  bring  impurity  much  rather ; 
that  which  purifies  us  is  trial,  and  trial  is  by  what 
is  contrary.  That  virtue  therefore  which  is  but  a 
youngling  in  the  contemplation  of  evil,  and  knows 
not  the  utmost  that  vice  promises  to  her  followers, 
and  rejects  it,  is  but  a  blank  virtue,  not  a  pure  ; 
her  whiteness  is  but  an  excremental  whiteness ; 
which  was  the  reason  why  our  sage  and  serious 
poet  Spenser,  (whom  I  dare  be  known  to  think  a 
better  teacher  than  Scotus  or  Aquinas,)  describ- 
ing true  temperance  under  the  person  of  Guion, 
brings  him  in  with  his  palmer  through  the  cave 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  113 

of  Mammon,  and  the  bower  of  earthly  bliss,  that 
he  might  see  and  know,  and  yet  abstain. 

Since  therefore  the  knowledge  and  survey  of  vice 
is  in  this  world  so  necessary  to  the  constituting  of 
human  virtue,  and  the  scanning  of  error  to  the 
confirmation  of  truth,  how  can  we  more  safely,  and 
with  less  danger,  scout  into  the  regions  of  sin  and 
falsity,  than  by  reading  all  manner  of  tractates, 
and  hearing  all  manner  of  reason  ?  .  .  .  . 

If  we  think  to  regulate  printing,  thereby  to  rec- 
tify manners,  we  must  regulate  all  recreations  and 
pastimes,  all  that  is  delightful  to  man.  No  music 
must  be  heard,  no  song  be  set  or  sung,  but  what 
is  grave  and  doric.  There  must  be  licensing  dan- 
cers, that  no  gesture,  motion,  or  deportment  be 
taught  our  youth,  but  what  by  their  allowance 
shall  be  thought  honest ;  for  such  Plato  was  pro- 
vided of.  It  will  ask  more  than  the  work  of 
twenty  licensers  to  examine  all  the  lutes,  the  vio- 
lins, and  the  guitars  in  every  house  ;  they  must 
not  be  suffered  to  prattle  as  they  do,  but  must  be 
licensed  what  they  may  say.  And  who  shall  si- 
lence all  the  airs  and  madrigals  that  whisper  softness 
in  chambers  ?  The  windows  also,  and  the  balco- 
nies, must  be  thought  on  ;  these  are  shrewd  books, 
with  dangerous  frontispieces,  set  to  sale :  who  shall 
prohibit  them,  shall  twenty  licensers  ?  The  vil- 
lages also  must  have  their  visitors  to  inquire  what 
lectures  the  bagpipe  and  the  rebec  reads,  even  to 
the  ballatry  and  the  gamut  of  every  municipal  fid- 


114  FROM  AREOPAGITICA. 

dler ;  for   these   are   the  countryman's  Arcadias, 
and  his  Monte  Mayors. 

Next,  what  more  national  corruption,  for  which 
England  hears  ill  abroad,  than  household  gluttony  ? 
Who  shall  be  the  rectors  of  our  daily  rioting  ? 
And  what  shall  be  done  to  inhibit  the  multitudes 
that  frequent  those  houses  where  drunkenness  is 
sold  and  harbored  ?  Our  garments  also  should  be 
referred  to  the  licensing  of  some  more  sober  work- 
masters,  to  see  them  cut  into  a  less  wanton  garb. 
Who  shall  regulate  all  the  mixed  conversation  of 
our  youth,  male  and  female  together,  as  is  the 
fashion  of  this  country  ?  Who  shall  still  appoint 
what  shall  be  discoursed,  what  presumed,  and  no 
further  ?  Lastly,  who  shall  forbid  and  separate  all 
idle  resort,  all  evil  company  ?  These  things  will 
be,  and  must  be  ;  but  how  they  shall  be  least  hurt- 
ful, how  least  enticing,  herein  consists  the  grave 
and  governing  wisdom  of  a  state 

They  are  not  skilful  considerers  of  human  things, 
who  imagine  to  remove  sin,  by  removing  the  mat- 
ter of  sin ;  for,  besides  that  it  is  a  huge  heap,  increas- 
ing under  the  very  act  of  diminishing,  though  some 
part  of  it  may  for  a  time  be  withdrawn  from  some 
persons,  it  cannot  from  all,  in  such  a  universal 
thing  as  books  are ;  and  when  this  is  done,  yet  the 
sin  remains  entire.  Though  ye  take  from  a  covet- 
ous man  all  his  treasure,  he  has  yet  one  jewel  left, 
ye  cannot  bereave  him  of  his  covetousness.  Ban- 
ish all  objects  of  lust,  shut  up  all  youth  into  the 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  115 

severest  discipline  that  can  be  exercised  in  any 
hermitage,  ye  cannot  make  them  chaste,  that  came 
not  thither  so :  such  great  care  and  wisdom  is  re- 
quired to  the  right  managing  of  this  point. 

Suppose  we  could  expel  sin  by  this  means  ;  look 
how  much  we  thus  expel  of  sin,  so  much  we  expel 
of  virtue ;  for  the  matter  of  them  both  is  the 
same :  remove  that,  and  ye  remove  them  both 
alike.  This  justifies  the  high  providence  of  God, 
who,  though  he  commands  us  temperance,  justice, 
continence,  yet  pours  out  before  us  even  to  a  pro- 
fuseness  all  desirable  things,  and  gives  us  minds 
that  can  wander  beyond  all  limit  and  satiety.  Why 
should  we  then  affect  a  rigor  contrary  to  the  man- 
ner of  God  and  of  nature,  by  abridging  or  scant- 
ing those  means,  wThich  books,  freely  permitted,  are, 
both  to  the  trial  of  virtue,  and  the  exercise  of 
truth  ? 

It  would  be  better  done,  to  learn  that  the  law 
must  needs  be  frivolous,  which  goes  to  restrain 
things,  uncertainly  and  yet  equally  working  to 
good  and  to  evil.  And  were  I  the  chooser,  a  dram 
of  well-doing  should  be  preferred  before  many 
times  as  much  the  forcible  hinderance  of  evil  doing. 
For  God  sure  esteems  the  growth  and  completing 
of  one  virtuous  person,  more  than  the  restraint  of 
ten  vicious 

If  therefore  ye  be  loath  to  dishearten  utterly 
and  discontent,  not  the  mercenary  crew  of  false 
pretenders  to  learning,  but  the  free  and  ingenuous 


116  FROM  AREOPAGITICA. 

sort  of  such  as  evidently  were  born  to  study  and 
love  learning  for  itself,  not  for  lucre,  or  any  other 
end,  but  the  service  of  God  and  of  truth,  and  per- 
haps that  lasting  fame  and  perpetuity  of  praise, 
which  God  and  good  men  have  consented  shall  be 
the  reward  of  those  whose  published  labors  advance 
the  good  of  mankind :  then  know,  that  so  far  to  dis- 
trust the  judgment  and  the  honesty  of  one  who 
hath  but  a  common  repute  in  learning,  and  never 
yet  oifended,  as  not  to  count  him  fit  to  print  his 
mind  without  a  tutor  and  examiner,  lest  he  should 
drop  a  schism,  or  something  of  corruption,  is  the 
greatest  displeasure  and  indignity  to  a  free  and 

knowing  spirit  that  can  be  put  upon  him 

How  can  a  man  teach  with  authority,  which  is 
the  life  of  teaching ;  how  can  he  be  a  doctor  in  his 
book,  as  he  ought  to  be,  or  else  had  better  be 
silent,  whenas  all  he  teaches,  all  he  delivers,  is 
but  under  the  tuition,  under  the  correction  of  his 
patriarchal  licenser,  to  blot  or  alter  what  precisely 
accords  not  with  the  hide-bound  humor  which  he 
calls  his  judgment  ?  When  every  acute  reader, 
upon  the  first  sight  of  a  pedantic  license,  will  be 
ready  with  these  like  words  to  ding  the  book  a 
quoit's  distance  from  him  :  —  "I  hate  a  pupil 
teacher ;  I  endure  not  an  instructor  that  comes  to 
me  under  the  wardship  of  an  overseeing  fist.  I 
know  nothing  of  the  licenser,  but  that  I  have  his 
own  hand  here  for  his  arrogance  ;  who  shall  war- 
rant me  his  judgment?  "  "  The  state,  sir,"  replies 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  117 

the  stationer ;  but  has  a  quick  return :  — "  The 
state  shall  be  my  governors,  but  not  my  critics ; 
they  may  be  mistaken  in  the  choice  of  a  licenser, 
as  easily  as  this  licenser  may  be  mistaken  in  an  au- 
thor. This  is  some  common  stuff" :  and  he  might 
add  from  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  that  "  such  author- 
ized books  are  but  the  language  of  the  times." 
For  though  a  licenser  should  happen  to  be  judi- 
cious more  than  ordinary,  which  will  be  a  great 
jeopardy  of  the  next  succession,  yet  his  very  office 
and  his  commission  enjoins  him  to  let  pass  nothing 
but  what  is  vulgarly  received  already. 

Nay,  which  is  more  lamentable,  if  the  work  of 
any  deceased  author,  though  never  so  famous  in 
his  lifetime,  and  even  to  this  day,  comes  to  their 
hands  for  license  to  be  printed,  or  reprinted,  if 
there  be  found  in  his  book  one  sentence  of  a  ven- 
turous edge,  uttered  in  the  height  of  zeal,  (and 
who  knows  whether  it  might  not  be  the  dictate  of 
a  divine  spirit  ?)  yet,  not  suiting  with  every  low 
decrepit  humor  of  their  own,  though  it  were  Knox 
himself,  the  reformer  of  a  kingdom,  that  spake  it, 
they  will  not  pardon  him  their  dash  ;  the  sense  of 
that  great  man  shall  to  all  posterity  be  lost,  for  the 
fearfulness,  or  the  presumptuous  rashness  of  a  per- 
functory licenser.  And  to  what  an  author  this  vio- 
lence hath  been  lately  done,  and  in  what  book,  of 
greatest  consequence  to  be  faithfully  piiblished,  I 
could  now  instance,  but  shall  forbear  till  a  more 
convenient  season.  Yet  if  these  things  be  not  re- 


118  FROM  AREOPAGITICA. 

sented  seriously  and  timely  by  them  who  have  the 
remedy  in  their  power,  but  that  such  ironmoulds 
as  these  shall  have  authority  to  gnaw  out  the 
choicest  periods  of  exquisitest  books,  and  to  commit 
such  a  treacherous  fraud  against  the  orphan  re- 
mainders of  worthiest  men  after  death,  the  more 
sorrow  will  belong  to  that  hapless  race  of  men, 
whose  misfortune  it  is  to  have  understanding. 
Henceforth  let  no  man  care  to  learn,  or  care  to  be 
more  than  worldly  wise  ;  for  certainly  in  higher 
matters  to  be  ignorant  and  slothful,  to  be  a  com- 
mon steadfast  dunce,  will  be  the  only  pleasant  life, 
and  only  in  request. 

And  as  it  is  a  particular  disesteem  of  every  know- 
ing person  alive,  and  most  injurious  to  the  written 
labors  and  monuments  of  the  dead,  so  to  me  it 
seems  an  undervaluing  and  vilifying  of  the  whole 
nation.  I  cannot  set  so  light  by  all  the  invention, 
the  art,  the  wit,  the  grave  and  solid  judgment  which 
is  in  England,  as  that  it  can  be  comprehended  in 
any  twenty  capacities,  how  good  soever ;  much  less 
that  it  should  not  pass  except  their  superintend- 
ence be  over  it,  except  it  be  sifted  and  strained 
with  their  strainers,  that  it  should  be  uncurrent 
without  their  manual  stamp.  Truth  and  under- 
standing are  not  such  wares  as  to  be  monopolized 
and  traded  in  by  tickets,  and  statutes,  and  stand- 
ards. We  must  not  think  to  make  a  staple  com- 
modity of  all  the  knowledge  in  the  land,  to  mark 
and  license  it  like  our  broadcloth  and  our  wool- 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  119 

packs.  What  is  it  but  a  servitude  like  that  im- 
posed by  the  Philistines,  not  to  be  allowed  the 
sharpening  of  our  own  axes  and  coulters,  but  we 
must  repair  from  all  quarters  to  twenty  licensing 
forges?  .... 

Well  knows  he  who  uses  to  consider,  that  our 
faith  and  knowledge  thrives  by  exercise,  as  well  as 
our  limbs  and  complexion.  Truth  is  compared  in 
Scripture  to  a  streaming  fountain ;  if  her  waters 
flow  not  in  a  perpetual  progression,  they  sicken 
into  a  muddy  pool  of  conformity  and  tradition.  A 
man  may  be  a  heretic  in  the  truth ;  and  if  he  be- 
lieve things  only  because  his  pastor  says  so,  or  the 
assembly  so  determines,  without  knowing  other  rea- 
son, though  his  belief  be  true,  yet  the  very  truth 
he  holds  becomes  his  heresy.  There  is  not  any 
burden  that  some  would  gladlier  post  off  to  anoth- 
er, than  the  charge  and  care  of  their  religion. 
There  be,  who  knows  not  that  there  be?  of  Protest- 
ants and  professors,  who  live  and  die  in  as  errant 
and  implicit  faith,  as  any  lay  Papist  of  Loretto. 

A  wealthy  man,  addicted  to  his  pleasure  and  to 
his  profits,  finds  religion  to  be  a  traffic  so  entan- 
gled, and  of  so  many  piddling  accounts,  that  of  all 
mysteries  he  cannot  skill  to  keep  a  stock  going 
upon  that  trade.  What  should  he  do  ?  Fain  he 
would  have  the  name  to  be  religious,  fain  he  would 
bear  up  with  his  neighbors  in  that.  What  does 
he  therefore,  but  resolves  to  give  over  toiling,  and 
to  find  himself  out  some  factor,  to  whose  care  and 


120  FROM  AREOPAG1TICA. 

credit  he  may  commit  the  whole  managing  of  his 
religious  affairs ;  some  divine  of  note  and  estima- 
tion that  must  be.  To  him  he  adheres,  resigns  the 
whole  warehouse  of  his  religion,  with  all  the  locks 
and  keys,  into  his  custody ;  and  indeed  makes  the 
very  person  of  that  man  his  religion  ;  esteems  his 
associating  with  him  a  sufficient  evidence  and  com- 
mendatory of  his  own  piety.  So  that  a  man  may 
say  his  religion  is  now  no  more  within  himself, 
but  is  become  a  dividual  movable,  and  goes  and 
comes  near  him,  according  as  that  good  man  fre- 
quents the  house.  He  entertains  him,  gives  him 
gifts,  feasts  him,  lodges  him  ;  his  religion  comes 
home  at  night,  prays,  is  liberally  supped,  and 
sumptuously  laid  to  sleep  ;  rises,  is  saluted,  and 
after  the  malmsey,  or  some  well-spiced  bruage,  and 
better  breakfasted  than  He  whose  morning  appe- 
tite would  have  gladly  fed  on  green  figs  between 
Bethany  and  Jerusalem,  his  religion  walks  abroad 
at  eight,  and  leaves  his  kind  entertainer  in  the  shop 
trading  all  day  without  his  religion. 

Another  sort  there  be,  who,  when  they  hear  that 
all  things  shall  be  ordered,  all  things  regulated  and 
settled,  nothing  written  but  what  passes  through 
the  custom-house  of  certain  publicans  that  have  the 
tonnaging  and  poundaging  of  all  free-spoken  truth, 
will  straight  give  themselves  up  into  your  hands, 
make  them  and  cut  them  out  what  religion  ye 
please :  there  be  delights,  there  be  recreations  and 
jolly  pastimes,  that  will  fetch  the  day  about  from 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  121 

sun  to  sun,  and  rock  the  tedious  year  as  in  a  de- 
lightful dream.  What  need  they  torture  their 
heads  with  that  which  others  have  taken  so  strict- 
ly, and  so  unalterably  into  their  own  purveying  ? 
These  are  the  fruits  which  a  dull  ease  and  cessa- 
tion of  our  knowledge  will  bring  forth  among  the 
people.  How  goodly,  and  how  to  be  wished  were 
such  an  obedient  unanimity  as  this  !  What  a  fine 
conformity  would  it  starch  us  all  into  !  Doubtless 
a  stanch  and  solid  piece  of  framework,  as  any  Jan- 
uary could  freeze  together 

For  if  we  be  sure  we  are  in  the  right,  and  do 
not  hold  the  truth  guiltily,  which  becomes  not,  if 
we  ourselves  condemn  not  our  own  weak  and  friv- 
olous teaching,  and  the  people  for  an  untaught  and 
irreligious  gadding  rout ;  what  can  be  more  fair, 
than  when  a  man  judicious,  learned,  and  of  a  con- 
science, for  aught  we  know  as  good  as  theirs  that 
taught  us  what  we  know,  shall  not  privily  from 
house  to  house,  which  is  more  dangerous,  but  open- 
ly by  writing,  publish  to  the  world  what  his  opin- 
ion is,  what  his  reasons,  and  wherefore  that  which 
is  now  thought  cannot  be  sound  ?  Christ  urged  it 
as  wherewith  to  justify  himself,  that  he  preached 
in  public;  yet  writing  is  more  public  than  preach- 
ing ;  and  more  easy  to  refutation  if  need  be,  there 
being  so  many  whose  business  and  profession  mere- 
ly it  is  to  be  the  champions  of  truth  ;  which  if 
they  neglect,  what  can  be  imputed  but  their  sloth 
or  inability?  .... 


122  FROM  AREOPAGITICA. 

There  is  yet  behind  of  what  I  purposed  to  lay 
open,  the  incredible  loss  and  detriment  that  this 
plot  of  licensing  puts  us  to,  more  than  if  some  ene- 
my at  sea  should  stop  up  all  our  havens,  and  ports, 
and  creeks  ;  it  hinders  and  retards  the  importation 
of  our  richest  merchandise,  —  truth :  nay,  it  was 
first  established  and  put  in  practice  by  Antichristian 
malice  and  mystery,  or  set  purpose  to  extinguish, 
if  it  were  possible,  the  light  of  reformation,  and  to 
settle  falsehood ;  little  differing  from  that  policy 
wherewith  the  Turk  upholds  his  Alcoran,  by  the 
prohibiting  of  printing.  It  is  not  denied,  but  glad- 
ly confessed,  we  are  to  send  our  thanks  and  vows 
to  heaven,  louder  than  most  of  nations,  for  that 
great  measure  of  truth  which  we  enjoy,  especially 
in  those  main  points  between  us  and  the  pope,  with 
his  appurtenances  the  prelates  :  but  he  who  thinks 
we  are  to  pitch  our  tent  here,  and  have  attained 
the  utmost  prospect  of  reformation  that  the  mortal 
glass  wherein  we  contemplate  can  show  us,  till  we 
come  to  beatific  vision,  that  man  by  this  very  opin- 
ion declares  that  he  is  yet  far  short  of  truth. 

Truth  indeed  came  once  into  the  world  with  her 
Divine  Master,  and  was  a  perfect  shape  most  glori- 
ous to  look  on  :  but  when  he  ascended,  and  his 
Apostles  after  him  were  laid  asleep,  then  straight 
arose  a  wicked  race  of  deceivers,  who,  as  that  story 
goes  of  the  Egyptian  Typhon  with  his  conspira- 
tors, how  they  dealt  with  the  good  Osiris,  took  the 
virgin  Truth,  hewed  her  lovely  form  into  a  thou- 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  123 

sand  pieces,  and  scattered  them  to  the  four  winds. 
From  that  time  ever  since,  the  sad  friends  of  Truth, 
such  as  durst  appear,  imitating  the  careful  search 
that  Isis  made  for  the  mangled  body  of  Osiris,  went 
up  and  down  gathering  up  limb  by  limb  still  as 
they  could  find  them.  We  have  not  yet  found 
them  all,  lords  and  commons,  nor  ever  shall  do, 
till  her  Master's  second  coming  ;  he  shall  bring  to- 
gether every  joint  and  member,  and  shall  mould 
them  into  an  immortal  feature  of  loveliness  and 
perfection.  Suffer  not  these  licensing  prohibitions 
to  stand  at  every  place  of  opportunity  forbidding 
and  disturbing  them  that  continue  seeking,  that 
continue  to  do  our  obsequies  to  the  torn  body  of 
our  martyred  saint. 

We  boast  our  light :  but  if  we  look  not  wisely 
on  the  sun  itself,  it  smites  us  into  darkness.  Who 
can  discern  those  planets  that  are  oft  combust, 
and  those  stars  of  brightest  magnitude  that  rise 
and  set  with  the  sun,  until  the  opposite  motion  of 
their  orbs  bring  them  to  such  a  place  in  the  firma- 
ment where  they  may  be  seen  evening  or  morn- 
ing ?  The  light  which  we  have  gained  was  given 
us,  not  to  be  ever  staring  on,  but  by  it  to  discover 
onward  things  more  remote  from  our  knowledge. 

To  be  still  searching  what  we  know  not,  by  what 
we  know,  still  closing  up  truth  to  truth  as  we  find 
it  (for  all  her  body  is  homogeneal  and  proportional), 
this  is  the  golden  rule  in  theology  as  well  as  in 


124  FROM  AREOPAG1TICA. 

arithmetic,  and  makes  up  the  best  harmony  in  a 
church ;  not  the  forced  and  outward  union  of  cold, 
and  neutral,  and  inwardly  divided  minds 

Now  once  again  by  all  concurrence  of  signs,  and 
by  the  general  instinct  of  holy  and  devout  men,  as 
they  daily  and  solemnly  express  their  thoughts,  God 
is  decreeing  to  begin  some  new  and  great  period  in 
his  Church,  even  to  the  reforming  of  reformation 
itself;  what  does  he  then  but  reveal  himself  to  his 
servants,  and,  as  his  manner  is,  first  to  his  English- 
men ?  I  say,  as  his  manner  is,  first  to  us,  though 
we  mark  not  the  method  of  his  counsels,  and  are 
unworthy.  Behold  now  this  vast  city,  a  city  of 
refuge,  the  mansion-house  of  liberty,  encompassed 
and  surrounded  with  his  protection ;  the  shop  of 
war  hath  not  there  more  anvils  and  hammers  work- 
ing, to  fashion  out  the  plates  and  instruments  of 
armed  justice  in  defence  of  beleaguered  truth,  than 
there  be  pens  and  heads  there,  sitting  by  their 
studious  lamps,  musing,  searching,  revolving  new 
notions  and  ideas  wherewith  to  present,  as  with 
their  homage  and  their  fealty,  the  approaching 
reformation :  others  as  fast  reading,  trying  all 
things,  assenting  to  the  force  of  reason  and  con- 
vincement. 

What  could  a  man  require  more  from  a  nation 
so  pliant  and  so  prone  to  seek  after  knowledge? 
What  wants  there  to  such  a  towardly  and  pregnant 
soil,  but  wise  and  faithful  laborers,  to  make  a  know- 
ing people,  a  nation  of  prophets,  of  sages,  and  of 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  125 

worthies  ?  We  reckon  more  than  five  months  yet 
to  harvest ;  there  need  not  be  five  weeks,  had  we 
but  eyes  to  lift  up,  the  fields  are  white  already. 
Where  there  is  much  desire  to  learn,  there  of 
necessity  will  be  much  arguing,  much  writing, 
many  opinions ;  for  opinion  in  good  men  is  but 
knowledge  in  the  making.  Under  these  fantastic 
terrors  of  sect  and  schism,  we  wrong  the  earnest 
and  zealous  thirst  after  knowledge  and  understand- 
ing, which  God  hath  stirred  up  in  this  city.  What 
some  lament  of,  we  rather  should  rejoice  at,  should 
rather  praise  this  pious  forwardness  among  men,  to 
reassume  the  ill-deputed  care  of  their  religion  into 
their  own  hands  again.  A  little  generous  pru- 
dence, a  little  forbearance  of  one  another,  and 
some  grain  of  charity  might  win  all  these  diligen- 
cies  to  join  and  unite  into  one  general  and  brotherly 
search  after  truth;  could  we  but  forego  this  pre- 
latical  tradition  of  crowding  free  consciences  and 
Christian  liberties  into  canons  and  precepts  of  men. 
I  doubt  not,  if  some  great  and  worthy  stranger 
should  come  among  us,  wise  to  discern  the  mould 
and  temper  of  a  people,  and  how  to  govern  it, 
observing  the  high  hopes  and  aims,  the  diligent 
alacrity  of  our  extended  thoughts  and  reasonings 
in  the  pursuance  of  truth  and  freedom,  but  that  he 
would  cry  out  as  Pyrrhus  did,  admiring  the  Roman 
docility  and  courage,  "  If  such  were  my  Epirots,  I 
would  not  despair  the  greatest  design  that  could  be 
attempted  to  make  a  church  or  kingdom  happy." 


126  FROM  AREOPAGITICA. 

Yet  these  are  the  men  cried  out  against  for  schis- 
matics and  sectaries,  as  if,  while  the  temple  of  the 
Lord  was  building,  some  cutting,  some  squaring 
the  marble,  others  hewing  the  cedars,  there  should 
be  a  sort  of  irrational  men,  who  could  not  consider 
there  must  be  many  schisms  and  many  dissections 
made  in  the  quarry  and  in  the  timber  ere  the 
house  of  God  can  be  built.  And  when  every  stone 
is  laid  artfully  together,  it  cannot  be  united  into  a 
continuity,  it  can  but  be  contiguous  in  this  world : 
neither  can  every  piece  of  the  building  be  of  one 
form ;  nay,  rather  the  perfection  consists  in  this, 
that  out  of  many  moderate  varieties  and  brotherly 
dissimilitudes  that  are  not  vastly  disproportional, 
arises  the  goodly  and  the  graceful  symmetry  that 
commends  the  whole  pile  and  structure. 

Let  us  therefore  be  more  considerate  builders, 
more  wise  in  spiritual  architecture,  when  great 
reformation  is  expected.  For  now  the  time  seems 
come,  wherein  Moses,  the  great  prophet,  may  sit 
in  heaven  rejoicing  to  see  that  memorable  and 
glorious  wish  of  his  fulfilled,  when  not  only  our 
seventy  elders,  but  all  the  Lord's  people,  are  be- 
come prophets.  No  marvel  then  though  some 
men,  and  some  good  men  too  perhaps,  but  young 
in  goodness,  as  Joshua  then  was,  envy  them. 
They  fret,  and  out  of  their  own  weakness  are  in 
agony,  lest  these  divisions  and  subdivisions  will 
undo  us.  The  adversary  again  applauds,  and  waits 
the  hour:  when  they  have  branched  themselves 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  127 

out,  saith  he,  small  enough  into  parties  and  par- 
titions, then  will  be  our  time.  Fool !  he  sees  not 
the  firm  root,  out  of  which  we  all  grow,  though 
into  branches  ;  nor  will  beware,  until  he  see  our 
small  divided  maniples  cutting  through  at  every 
angle  of  his  ill-united  and  unwieldy  brigade.  And 
that  we  are  to  hope  better  of  all  these  supposed 
sects  and  schisms,  and  that  we  shall  not  need  that 
solicitude,  honest  perhaps,  though  over-timorous,  of 
them  that  vex  in  this  behalf,  but  shall  laugh  in  the 
end  at  those  malicious  applauders  of  our  differences, 
I  have  these  reasons  to  persuade  me. 

First,  when  a  city  shall  be  as  it  were  besieged 
and  blocked  about,  her  navigable  river  infested, 
inroads  and  incursions  round,  defiance  and  battle 
oft  rumored  to  be  marching  up,  even  to  her  walls 
and  suburb  trenches ;  that  then  the  people,  or  the 
greater  part,  more  than  at  other  times,  wholly 
taken  up  with  the  study  of  highest  and  most  im- 
portant matters  to  be  reformed,  should  be  disputing, 
reasoning,  reading,  inventing,  discoursing,  even  to 
a  rarity  and  admiration,  things  not  before  discoursed 
or  written  of,  argues  first  a  singular  good  will, 
contentedness,  and  confidence  in  your  prudent 
foresight,  and  safe  government,  lords  and  com- 
mons ;  and  from  thence  derives  itself  to  a  gallant 
bravery  and  well-grounded  contempt  of  their  ene- 
mies, as  if  there  were  no  small  number  of  as  great 
spirits  among  us,  as  his  was  who,  when  Rome  was 
nigh  besieged  by  Hannibal,  being  in  the  city, 


128  FROM  AREOPAGITICA. 

bought  that  piece  of  ground,  at  no  cheap  rate, 
whereon  Hannibal  himself  encamped  his  own 
regiment. 

Next  it  is  a  lively  and  cheerful  presage  of  our 
happy  success  and  victory.  For  as  in  a  body  when 
the  blood  is  fresh,  the  spirits  pure  and  vigorous, 
not  only  to  vital,  but  to  rational  faculties,  and  those 
in  the  acutest  and  the  pertest  operations  of  wit  and 
subtlety,  it  argues  in  what  good  plight  and  consti- 
tution the  body  is ;  so  when  the  cheerfulness  of 
the  people  is  so  sprightly  up,  as  that  it  has  not  only 
wherewith  to  guard  well  its  own  freedom  and 
safety,  but  to  spare,  and  to  bestoAV  upon  the  sol- 
idest  and  sublimest  points  of  controversy  and  new 
invention,  it  betokens  us  not  degenerated,  nor 
drooping  to  a  fatal  decay,  by  casting  off  the  old 
and  wrinkled  skin  of  corruption  to  outlive  these 
pangs,  and  wax  young  again,  entering  the  glorious 
ways  of  truth  and  prosperous  virtue,  destined  to 
become  great  and  honorable  in  these  latter  ages. 
Methinks  I  see  in  my  mind  a  noble  and  puissant 
nation  rousing  herself  like  a  strong  man  after  sleep, 
and  shaking  her  invincible  locks:  methinks  I  see 
her  as  an  eagle  mewing  her  mighty  youth,  and 
kindling  her  undazzled  eyes  at  the  full  midday 
beam ;  purging  and  unsealing  her  long-abused 
sight  at  the  fountain  itself  of  heavenly  radiance  ; 
while  the  whole  noise  of  timorous  and  flocking 
birds,  with  those  also  that  love  the  twilight,  flutter 
about,  amazed  at  what  she  means,  and  in  their 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  129 

envious  gabble  would  prognosticate  a  year  of  sects 
and  schisms 

The  temple  of  Janus,  with  his  two  controversial 
faces,  might  now  not  unsignificantly  be  set  open. 
And  though  all  the  winds  of  doctrine  were  let 
loose  to  play  upon  the  earth,  so  truth  be  in  the 
field,  we  do  injuriously  by  licensing  and  pro- 
hibiting to  misdoubt  her  strength.  Let  her  and 
falsehood  grapple  ;  who  ever  knew  truth  put  to  the 
worse,  in  a  free  and  open  encounter  ?  Her  con- 
futing is  the  best  and  surest  suppressing 

When  a  man  hath  been  laboring  the  hardest  labor 
in  the  deep  mines  of  knowledge,  hath  furnished 
out  his  findings  in  all  their  equipage,  drawn  forth 
his  reasons  as  it  were  a  battle  ranged,  scattered 
and  defeated  all  objections  in  his  way,  calls  out  his 
adversary  into  the  plain,  offers  him  the  advantage 
of  wind  and  sun,  if  he  please,  only  that  he  may 
try  the  matter  by  dint  of  argument ;  for  his  oppo- 
nents then  to  skulk,  to  lay  ambushments,  to  keep 
a  narrow  bridge  of  licensing  where  the  challenger 
should  pass,  though  it  be  valor  enough  in  soldier- 
ship, is  but  weakness  and  cowardice  in  the  wars  of 
truth.  For  who  knows  not  that  truth  is  strong, 
next  to  the  Almighty;  she  needs  no  policies,  nor 
stratagems,  nor  licensings  to  make  her  victorious  ; 
those  are  the  shifts  and  the  defences  that  error 
uses  against  her  power :  give  her  but  room,  and  do 
not  bind  her  when  she  sleeps,  for  then  she  speaks 
not  true,  as  the  old  Proteus  did,  who  spake  ora- 
6*  i 


130  FROM  AREOPAGITICA. 

cles  only  when  he  was  caught  and  bound,  but  then 
rather  she  turns  herself  into  all  shapes  except  her 
own,  and  perhaps  tunes  her  voice  according  to  the 
time,  as  Micaiah  did  before  Ahab,  until  she  be  ad- 
jured into  her  own  likeness 

In  the  mean  while,  if  any  one  would  write,  and 
bring  his  helpful  hand  to  the  slow-moving  reforma- 
tion which  we  labor  under,  if  truth  have  spoken  to 
him  before  others,  or  but  seemed  at  least  to  speak, 
who  hath  so  bejesuited  us,  that  we  should  trouble 
that  man  with  asking  license  to  do  so  worthy  a 
deed  ;  and  not  consider  this,  that  if  it  come  to  pro- 
hibiting, there  is  not  aught  more  likely  to  be  pro- 
hibited than  truth  itself:  whose  first  appearance  to 
our  eyes,  bleared  and  dimmed  with  prejudice  and 
custom,  is  more  unsightly  and  unplausible  than 
many  errors ;  even  as  the  person  is  of  many  a 
great  man  slight  and  contemptible  to  see  to 

When  God  shakes  a  kingdom,  with  strong  and 
healthful  commotions,  to  a  general  reforming,  it  is 
not  untrue  that  many  sectaries  and  false  teachers 
are  then  busiest  in  seducing. 

But  yet  more  true  it  is,  that  God  then  raises  to 
his  own  work  men  of  rare  abilities,  and  more  than 
common  industry,  not  only  to  look  back  and  revive 
what  hath  been  taught  heretofore,  but  to  gain  fur- 
ther, and  to  go  on  some  new  enlightened  steps  in 
the  discovery  of  truth.  For  such  is  the  order  of 
God's  enlightening  his  Church,  to  dispense  and  deal 
out  by  degrees  his  beam,  so  as  our  earthly  eyes 


FROM  AREOPAGITICA.  131 

may  best  sustain  it.  Neither  is  God  appointed  and 
confined,  where  and  out  of  what  place  these  his 
chosen  shall  be  first  heard  to  speak;  for  he  sees 
not  as  man  sees,  chooses  not  as  man  chooses,  lest 
we  should  devote  ourselves  again  to  set  places  and 
assemblies,  and  outward  callings  of  men. 


FROM 

THE   DOCTRINE  AND  DISCIPLINE  OF 
DIVORCE. 

it  were  seriously  asked,  (and  it  would 
be  no  untimely  question,)  who  of  all 
teachers  and  masters,  that  have  ever 
taught,  hath  drawn  the  most  disciples 
after  him,  both  in  religion  and  in  manners  ?  it 
might  be  not  untruly  answered,  custom.  Though 
virtue  be  commended  for  the  most  persuasive  in  her 
theory,  and  conscience  in  the  plain  demonstration 
of  the  spirit  finds  most  evincing ;  yet  whether  it 
be  the  secret  of  divine  will,  or  the  original  blind- 
ness we  are  born  in,  so  it  happens  for  the  most  part 
that  custom  still  is  silently  received  for  the  best  in- 
structor. Except  it  be,  because  her  method  is  so 
glib  and  easy,  in  some  manner  like  to  that  vision 
of  Ezekiel  rolling  up  her  sudden  book  of  implicit 
knowledge,  for  him  that  will  to  take  and  swallow 
down  at  pleasure  ;  which  proving  but  of  bad  nour- 
ishment in  the  concoction,  as  it  was  heedless  in  the 
devouring,  puffs  up  unhealthily  a  certain  big  face 
of  pretended  learning,  mistaken  among  credulous 


DOCTRINE   OF  DIVORCE.  133 

men  for  the  wholesome  habit  of  soundness  and  good 
constitution,  but  is  indeed  no  other  than  that  swoln 
visage  of  counterfeit  knowledge  and  literature, 
which  not  only  in  private  mars  our  education,  but 
also  in  public  is  the  common  climber  into  every 
chair,  where  either  religion  is  preached,  or  law  re- 
ported ;  filling  each  estate  of  life  and  profession 
with  abject  and  servile  principles,  depressing  the 
high  and  heaven-born  spirit  of  man  far  beneath  the 
condition  wherein  either  God  created  him,  or  sin 
hath  sunk  him.  To  pursue  the  allegory,  custom 
being  but  a  mere  face,  as  echo  is  a  mere  voice,  rests 
not  in  her  unaccomplishment,  until  by  secret  incli- 
nation she  accorporate  herself  with  error,  who,  be- 
ing a  blind  and  serpentine  body  without  a  head, 
willingly  accepts  what  he  wants,  and  supplies  what 
her  incompleteness  went  seeking.  Hence  it  is, 
that  error  supports  custom,  custom  countenances 
error ;  and  these  two  between  them  would  perse- 
cute and  chase  away  all  truth  and  solid  wisdom  out 
of  human  life,  were  it  not  that  God,  rather  than 
man,  once  in  many  ages  calls  together  the  prudent 
and  religious  counsels  of  men,  deputed  to  repress 
the  encroachments,  and  to  work  off  the  inveterate 
blots  and  obscurities  wrought  upon  our  minds  by 
the  subtle  insinuating  of  error  and  custom  ;  who, 
with  the  numerous  and  vulgar  train  of  their  follow- 
ers, make  it  their  chief  design  to  envy  and  cry 
down  the  industry  of  free  reasoning,  under  the 
terms  of  humor  and  innovation  ;  as  if  the  womb  of 


134  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

teeming  truth  were  to  be  closed  up,  if  she  presume 
to  bring  forth  aught  that  sorts  not  with  their  un- 

chewed  notions  and  suppositions 

He  who  shall  endeavor  the  amendment  of  any 
old  neglected  grievance  in  church  or  state,  or  in 
the  daily  course  of  life,  if  he  be  gifted  with  abilities 
of  mind  that  may  raise  him  to  so  high  an  under- 
taking, I  grant  he  hath  already  much  whereof  not 
to  repent  him ;  yet  let  me  aread  him,  not  to  be  the 
foreman  of  any  misjudged  opinion,  unless  his  reso- 
lutions be  firmly  seated  in  a  square  and  constant 
mind,  not  conscious  to  itself  of  any  deserved  blame, 
and  regardless  of  ungrounded  suspicions.  For  this 
let  him  be  sure,  he  shall  be  boarded  presently  by 
the  ruder  sort,  but  not  by  discreet  and  well-nur- 
tured men,  with  a  thousand  idle  descants  and 
surmises.  Who,  when  they  cannot  confute  the 
least  joint  or  sinew  of  any  passage  in  the  .book ; 
yet  God  forbid  that  truth  should  be  truth,  because 
they  have  a  boisterous  conceit  of  some  pretences  in 
the  writer.  But  were  they  not  more  busy  and 
inquisitive  than  the  Apostle  commends,  they  would 
hear  him  at  least,  "  rejoicing  so  the  truth  be 
preached,  whether  of  envy  or  other  pretence  what- 
soever": for  truth  is  as  impossible  to  be  soiled  by 
any  outward  touch  as  the  sunbeam ;  though  this 
ill  hap  wait  on  her  nativity,  that  she  never  comes 
into  the  world  but  like  a  bastard,  to  the  ignominy 
of  him  that  brought  her  forth ;  till  time,  the  mid- 
wife rather  than  the  mother  of  truth,  have  washed 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  135 

and  salted  the  infant,  declared  her  legitimate,  and 
churched  the  father  of  his  young  Minerva,  from 
the  needless  causes  of  his  purgation 

This  question  concerns  not  us  perhaps :  indeed 
man's  disposition,  though  prone  to  search  after  vain 
curiosities,  yet  when  points  of  difficulty  are  to  be 
discussed,  appertaining  to  the  removal  of  unreason- 
able wrong  and  burden  from  the  perplexed  life  of 
our  brother,  it  is  incredible  how  cold,  how  dull, 
and  far  from  all  fellow-feeling  we  are,  without  the 
spur  of  self-concernment 

He  who  wisely  would  restrain  the  reasonable 
soul  of  man  within  due  bounds,  must  first  himself 
know  perfectly,  how  far  the  territory  and  dominion 
extends  of  just  and  honest  liberty.  As  little  must 
he  offer  to  bind  that  which  God  hath  loosened,  as 
to  loosen  that  which  he  hath  bound.  The  igno- 
rance and  mistake  of  this  high  point  hath  heaped  up 
one  huge  half  of  all  the  misery  that  hath  been  since 
Adam.  In  the  Gospel  we  shall  read  a  supercilious 
crew  of  masters,  whose  holiness,  or  rather  whose 
evil  eye,  grieving  that  God  should  be  so  facile  to 
man,  was  to  set  straiter  limits  to  obedience  than 
God  hath  set,  to  enslave  the  dignity  of  man,  to 
put  a  garrison  upon  his  neck  of  empty  and  over- 
dignified  precepts :  and  we  shall  read  our  Saviour 
never  more  grieved  and  troubled  than  to  meet  with 
such  a  peevish  madness  among  men  against  their 
own  freedom 

The  greatest  burden  in  the  world  is  superstition, 


136  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

not  only  of  ceremonies  in  the  Church,  but  of  imagi- 
nary and  scarecrow  sins  at  home.  What  greater 
weakening,  what  more  subtle  stratagem  against  our 
Christian  warfare,  when  besides  the  gross  body  of 
real  transgressions  to  encounter,  we  shall  be  terri- 
fied by  a  vain  and  shadowy  menacing  of  faults  that 
are  not?  When  things  indifferent  shall  be  set  to 
overfront  us  under  the  banners  of  sin,  what  wonder 
if  we  be  routed,  and  by  this  art  of  our  adversary 
fall  into  the  subjection  of  worst  and  deadliest 
offences  ? 

The  superstition  of  the  papist  is,  "  Touch  not, 
taste  not,"  when  God  bids  both;  and  ours  is, 
"  Part  not,  separate  not,"  when  God  and  charity 
both  permits  and  commands.  "  Let  all  your  things 
be  done  with  charity,"  saith  St.  Paul;  and  his 
Master  saith,  "  She  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law." 
Yet  now  a  civil,  an  indifferent,  a  sometime  dis- 
suaded law  of  marriage,  must  be  forced  upon  us  to 
fulfil,  not  only  without  charity  but  against  her. 
No  place  in  heaven  or  earth,  except  hell,  where 
charity  may  not  enter :  yet  marriage,  the  ordinance 
of  our  solace  and  contentment,  the  remedy  of  our 
loneliness,  will  not  admit  now  either  of  charity  or 
mercy,  to  come  in  and  mediate,  or  pacify  the  fierce- 
ness of  this  gentle  ordinance,  the  unremedied  lone- 
liness of  this  remedy.  Advise  ye  well,  supreme 
senate,  if  charity  be  thus  excluded  and  expulsed, 
how  ye  will  defend  the  untainted  honor  of  your 
own  actions  and  proceedings.  He  who  marries, 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  137 

intends  as  little  to  conspire  his  own  ruin,  as  he  that 
swears  allegiance :  and  as  a  whole  people  is  in  pro- 
portion to  an  ill  government,  so  is  one  man  to  an 
ill  marriage.  If  they,  against  any  authority,  cov- 
enant, or  statute,  may,  by  the  sovereign  edict  of 
charity,  save  not  only  their  lives  but  honest  liber- 
ties from  unworthy  bondage,  as  well  may  he  against 
any  private  covenant,  which  he  never  entered  to 
his  mischief,  redeem  himself  from  unsupportable 
disturbances  to  honest  peace  and  just  contentment. 
And  much  the  rather,  for  that  to  resist  the  highest 
magistrate  though  tyrannizing,  God  never  gave 
us  express  allowance,  only  he  gave  us  reason, 
charity,  nature  and  good  example  to  bear  us  out ; 
but  in  this  economical  misfortune  thus  to  demean 
ourselves,  besides  the  warrant  of  those  four  great 
directors,  which  doth  as  justly  belong  hither,  we 
have  an  express  law  of  God,  and  such  a  law,  as 
whereof  our  Saviour  with  a  solemn  threat  forbade 
the  abrogating.  For  no  effect  of  tyranny  can  sit 
more  heavy  on  the  commonwealth  than  this  house- 
hold unhappiness  on  the  family.  And  farewell  all 
hope  of  true  reformation  in  the  state,  while  such 
an  evil  as  this  lies  undiscerned  or  unregarded  in 
the  house :  on  the  redress  whereof  depends  not 
only  the  spiritful  and  orderly  life  of  our  grown 
men,  but  the  willing  and  careful  education  of  our 
children.  Let  this  therefore  be  new  examined, 
this  tenure  and  freehold  of  mankind,  this  native 
and  domestic  charter  given  us  by  a  greater  lord 


138  FROM   THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

than  that  Saxon  king  the  Confessor.  Let  the 
statutes  of  God  be  turned  over,  be  scanned  anew, 
and  considered  not  altogether  by  the  narrow  in- 
tellectuals of  quotationists  and  commonplaces,  but 
(as  was  the  ancient  right  of  councils)  by  men  of 
what  liberal  profession  soever,  of  eminent  spirit  and 
breeding,  joined  with  a  diffuse  and  various  knowl- 
edge of  divine  and  human  things ;  able  to  balance 
and  define  good  and  evil,  right  and  wrong,  through- 
out every  state  of  life ;  able  to  show  us  the  ways 
of  the  Lord  straight  and  faithful  as  they  are,  not 
full  of  cranks  and  contradictions,  and  pitfalling  dis- 
penses, but  with  divine  insight  and  benignity  meas- 
ured out  to  the  proportion  of  each  mind  and  spirit, 
each  temper  and  disposition  created  so  different 
each  from  other,  and  yet,  by  the  skill  of  wise  con- 
ducting, all  to  become  uniform  in  virtue.  To  ex- 
pedite these  knots,  were  worthy  a  learned  and 
memorable  synod ;  while  our  enemies  expect  to 
see  the  expectation  of  the  Church  tired  out  with 
dependencies  and  independencies,  how  they  will 
compound  and  in  what  calends.  Doubt  not,  wor- 
thy senators!  to  vindicate  the  sacred  honor  and 
judgment  of  Moses  your  predecessor,  from  the 
shallow  commenting  of  scholastics  and  canonists. 
Doubt  not  after  him  to  reach  out  your  steady 
hands  to  the  misinformed  and  wearied  life  of  man ; 
to  restore  this  his  lost  heritage,  into  the  household 
state :  wherewith  be  sure  that  peace  and  love,  the 
best  subsistence  of  a  Christian  family,  will  return 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  139 

home  from  whence  they  are  now  banished  ;  places 
of  prostitution  will  be  less  haunted,  the  neighbor's 
bed  less  attempted,  the  yoke  of  prudent  and  manly 
discipline'will  be  generally  submitted  to ;  sober  and 
well-ordered  living  will  soon  spring  up  in  the  com- 
monwealth. Ye  have  an  author  great  beyond 
exception,  Moses ;  and  one  yet  greater,  he  who 
hedged  in  from  abolishing  every  smallest  jot  and 
tittle  of  precious  equity  contained  in  that  law,  with 
a  more  accurate  and  lasting  Masoreth,  than  either 
the  synagogue  of  Ezra  or  the  Galilaean  school  at 
Tiberias  hath  left  us.  , 


MANY  men,  whether  it  be  their  fate  or  fond  opin- 
ion, easily  persuade  themselves,  if  God  would  but 
be  pleased  awhile  to  withdraw  his  just  punishments 
from  us,  and  to  restrain  what  power  either  the 
Devil  or  any  earthly  enemy  hath  to  work  us  woe, 
that  then  man's  nature  would  find  immediate  rest 
and  releasement  from  all  evils.  But  verily  they 
who  think  so,  if  they  be  such  as  have  a  mind  large 
enough  to  take  into  their  thoughts  a  general  sur- 
vey of  human  things,  would  soon  prove  themselves 
in  that  opinion  far  deceived.  For  though  it  were 
granted  us  by  divine  indulgence  to  be  exempt  from 
all  that  can  be  harmful  to  us  from  without,  yet  the 
perverseness  of  our  folly  is  so  bent,  that  we  should 
never  cease  hammering  out  of  our  own  hearts,  as 
it  were  out  of  a  flint,  the  seeds  and  sparkles  of  new 


140  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

misery  to  ourselves,  till  all  were  in  a  blaze  again. 
And  no  marvel  if  out  of  our  own  hearts,  for  they 
are  evil ;  but  even  out  of  those  things  which  God 
meant  us,  either  for  a  principal  good,  or  a  pure 
contentment,  we  are  still  hatching  and  contriving 
upon  ourselves  matter  of  continual  sorrow  and  per- 
plexity  

What  thing  more  instituted  to  the  solace  and 
delight  of  man  than  marriage  ?  And  yet  the  mis- 
interpreting of  some  Scripture,  directed  mainly 
against  the  abuses  of  the  law  for  divorce  given  by 
Moses,  hath  changed  the  blessing  of  matrimony  not 
seldom  into  a  familiar  and  coinhabiting  mischief; 
at  least,  into  a  drooping  and  disconsolate  household 
captivity,  without  refuge  or  redemption  :  so  un- 
governed  and  so  wild  a  race  doth  superstition  run 
us  from  one  extreme  of  abused  liberty  into  the 
other  of  unmerciful  restraint What  a  ca- 
lamity is  this  ?  and,  as  the  wise  man,  if  he  were 
alive,  would  sigh  out  in  his  own  phrase,  what  a 
"  sore  evil  is  this  under  the  sun  !  "  All  which  we 
can  refer  justly  to  no  other  author  than  the  canon 
law  and  her  adherents,  not  consulting  with  charity, 
the  interpreter  and  guide  of  our  faith,  but  resting 
in  the  mere  element  of  the  text ;  doubtless  by  the 
policy  of  the  Devil  to  make  that  gracious  ordinance 
become  unsupportable,  that  what  with  men  not 
daring  to  venture  upon  wedlock,  and  what  with 
men  wearied  out  of  it,  all  inordinate  license  might 
abound.  It  was  for  many  ages  that  marriage  lay  in 


DISCIPLINE  OF  DIVORCE.  141 

disgrace  with  most  of  the  ancient  doctors,  as  a  work 
of  the  flesh,  almost  a  defilement,  wholly  denied  to 
priests,  and  the  second  time  dissuaded  to  all,  as  he 
that  reads  Tertullian  or  Jerome  may  see  at  large. 
Afterwards  it  was  thought  so  sacramental,  that  no 
adultery  or  desertion  could  dissolve  it ;  and  this  is 
the  sense  of  our  canon  courts  in  England  to  this  day, 
but  in  no  other  Reformed  Church  else  :  yet  there 
remains  in  them  also  a  burden  on  it  as  heavy  as 
the  other  two  were  disgraceful  or  superstitious,  and 
of  as  much  iniquity,  crossing  a  law  not  only  writ- 
ten by  Moses,  but  charactered  in  us  by  nature, 
of  more  antiquity  and  deeper  ground  than  marriage 
itself;  which  law  is  to  force  nothing  against  the 
faultless  proprieties  of  nature,  yet  that  this  may  be 
colorably  done,  our  Saviour's  words  touching  di- 
vorce are  as  it  were  congealed  into  a  stony  rigor, 
inconsistent  both  with  his  doctrine  and  his  office ; 
and  that  which  he  preached  only  to  the  conscience 
is  by  canonical  tyranny  snatched  into  the  compul- 
sive censure  of  a  judicial  court ;  where  laws  are 
imposed  even  against  the  venerable  and  secret 
power  of  nature's  impression,  to  love,  whatever 
cause  be  found  to  loathe :  which  is  a  heinous  bar- 
barism, both  against  the  honor  of  marriage,  the 
dignity  of  man  and  his  soul,  the  goodness  of 
Christianity,  and  all  the  human  respects  of  civility. 

This  therefore  shall  be  the  task  and  period  of 
this  discourse  to  prove,  first,  that  other  reasons  of 


142  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

divorce,  besides  adultery,  were  by  the  law  of 
Moses,  and  are  yet  to  be  allowed  by  the  Christian 
magistrate  as  a  piece  of  justice,  and  that  the  words 
of  Christ  are  not  hereby  contraried.  Next,  that  to 
prohibit  absolutely  any  divorce  whatsoever,  ex- 
cept those  which  Moses  excepted,  is  against  the 
reason  of  law He  therefore,  who,  by  ad- 
venturing, shall  be  so  happy  as  with  success  to  light 
the  way  of  such  an  expedient  liberty  and  truth  as 
this,  shall  restore  the  much-wronged  and  over-sor- 
rowed state  of  matrimony,  not  only  to  those  mer- 
ciful and  life-giving  remedies  of  Moses,  but,  as 
much  as  may  be,  to  that  serene  and  blissful  condi- 
tion it  was  in  at  the  beginning,  and  shall  deserve 
of  all  apprehensive  men,  (considering  the  troubles 
and  distempers,  which,  for  want  of  this  insight 
have  been  so  oft  in  kingdoms,  in  states,  and  fami- 
lies,) shall  deserve  to  be  reckoned  among  the  pub- 
lic benefactors  of  civil  and  human  life,  above  the 
inventors  of  wine  and  oil ;  for  this  is  a  far  dearer, 
far  nobler,  and  more  desirable  cherishing  to  man's 
life,  unworthily  exposed  to  sadness  and  mistake, 
which  he  shall  vindicate.  Not  that  license,  and 
levity,  and  unconsented  breach  of  faith  should  here- 
in be  countenanced,  but  that  some  conscionable 
and  tender  pity  might  be  had  of  those  who  have 
unwarily,  in  a  thing  they  never  practised  before, 
made  themselves  the  bondmen  of  a  luckless  and 
helpless  matrimony.  In  which  argument,  he 
whose  courage  can  serve  him  to  give  the  first  on- 


DISCIPLINE  OF  DIVORCE.  143 

set,  must  look  for  two  several  oppositions :  the 
one  from  those  who,  having  sworn  themselves  to 
long  custom,  and  the  letter  of  the  text,  will  not 
out  of  the  road  ;  the  other  from  those  whose  gross 
and  vulgar  apprehensions  conceit  but  low  of  mat- 
rimonial purposes,  and  in  the  work  of  male  and 
female  think  they  have  all.  Nevertheless,  it  shah1 
be  here  sought  by  due  ways  to  be  made  appear, 
that  those  words  of  God  in  the  institution,  promis- 
ing a  meet  help  against  loneliness,  and  those  words 
of  Christ,  that  "  his  yoke  is  easy  and  his  burden 
light,"  were  not  spoken  in  vain  :  for  if  the  knot  of 
marriage  may  in  no  case  be  dissolved  but  for  adul- 
tery, all  the  burdens  and  services  of  the  law  are 
not  so  intolerable.  This  only  is  desired  of  them 
who  are  minded  to  judge  hardly  of  thus  maintain- 
ing, that  they  would  be  still,  and  hear  all  out,  nor 
think  it  equal  to  answer  deliberate  reason  with 
sudden  heat  and  noise  ;  remembering  this,  that 
many  truths  now  of  reverend  esteem  and  credit, 
had  their  birth  and  beginning  once  from  singular 
and  private  thoughts,  while  the  most  of  men  were 
otherwise  possessed  ;  and  had  the  fate  at  first  to  be 
generally  exploded  and  exclaimed  on  by  many  vio- 
lent opposers :  yet  I  may  err  perhaps  in  soothing 
myself,  that  this  present  truth  revived  will  deserve 
on  all  hands  to  be  not  sinisterly  received,  in  that  it 
undertakes  the  cure  of  an  inveterate  disease  crept 
into  the  best  part  of  human  society  ;  and  to  do  this 
with  no  smarting  corrosive,  but  a  smooth  and 


144  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

pleasing  lesson,  which  received  both  the  virtue  to 
soften  and  dispel  rooted  and  knotty  sorrows,  and 
without  enchantment,  if  that  be  feared,  or  spell  used, 
hath  regard  at  once  both  to  serious  pity  and  up- 
right honesty  ;  that  tends  to  the  redeeming  and  re- 
storing of  none  but  such  as  are  the  object  of  com- 
passion, having  in  an  ill  hour  hampered  themselves, 
to  the  utter  despatch  of  all  their  most  beloved  com- 
forts and  repose  for  this  life's  term.  But  if  we 
shall  obstinately  dislike  this  new  overture  of  un- 
expected ease  and  recovery,  what  remains  but  to 
deplore  the  frowardness  of  our  hopeless  condition, 
which  neither  can  endure  the  estate  we  are  in,  nor 
admit  of  remedy  either  sharp  or  sweet  ?  Sharp  we 
ourselves  distaste  ;  and  sweet,  under  whose  hands 
we  are,  is  scrupled  and  suspected  as  too  luscious. 
In  such  a  posture  Christ  found  the  Jews,  who  were 
neither  wron  with  the  austerity  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist, and  thought  it  too  much  license  to  follow  free- 
ly the  charming  pipe  of  him  who  sounded  and  pro- 
claimed liberty  and  relief  to  all  distresses ;  yet  truth 
in  some  age  or  other  will  find  her  witness,  and  shall 

be  justified  at  last  by  her  own  children 

Lest  therefore  so  noble  a  creature  as  man  should 
be  shut  up  incurably  under  a  worse  evil  by  an  easy 
mistake  in  that  ordinance  which  God  gave  him  to 
remedy  a  less  evil,  reaping  to  himself  sorrow  while 
he  went  to  rid  away  solitariness,  it  cannot  avoid  to 
be  concluded,  that  if  the  woman  be  naturally  so  of 
disposition,  as  will  not  help  to  remove,  but  help  to 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  145 

increase  that  same  God-forbidden  loneliness,  which 
in  time  draws  on  with  it  a  general  discomfort  and 
dejection  of  mind,  not  beseeming  either  Christian 
profession  or  moral  conversation,  unprofitable  and 
dangerous  to  the  commonwealth,  when  the  house- 
hold estate,  out  of  which  must  flourish  forth  the 
vigor  and  spirit  of  all  public  enterprises,  is  so  ill- 
contented  and  procured  at  home,  and  cannot  be 
supported;  such  a  marriage  can  be  no  marriage, 
whereto  the  most  honest  end  is  wanting ;  and  the 
aggrieved  person  shall  do  more  manly,  to  be  ex- 
traordinary and  singular  in  claiming  the  due  right 
whereof  he  is  frustrated,  than  to  piece  up  his  lost 
contentment  by  visiting  the  stews,  or  stepping  to 
his  neighbor's  bed,  which  is  the  common  shift  in 
this  misfortune  ;  or  else  by  suffering  his  useful  life 
to  waste  away,  and  be  lost  under  a  secret  affliction 
of  an  unconscionable  size  to  human  strength. 
Against  all  which  evils  the  mercy  of  this  Mosaic 

law  was  graciously  exhibited 

St.  Paul  saith,  "It  is  better  to  marry  than  to 
burn."  Marriage,  therefore,  was  given  as  a  rem- 
edy of  that  trouble :  but  what  might  this  burning 
mean  ?  Certainly  not  the  mere  motion  of  carnal 
lust,  not  the  mere  goad  of  a  sensitive  desire  :  God 
does  not  principally  take  care  for  such  cattle.  What 
is  it  then  but  that  desire  which  God  put  into  Adam 
in  Paradise,  before  he  knew  the  sin  of  incontinence ; 
that  desire  which  God  saw  it  was  not  good  that 
man  should  be  left  alone  to  burn  in ;  the  desire 
7  j 


146  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

and  longing  to  put  off  an  unkindly  solitariness  by 
uniting  another  body,  but  not  without  a  fit  soul  to 
his,  in  the  cheerful  society  of  wedlock  ?  Which,  if 
it  were  so  needful  before  the  fall,  when  man  was 
much  more  perfect  in  himself,  how  much  more  is 
it  needful  now  against  all  the  sorrows  and  casualties 
of  this  life,  to  have  an  intimate  and  speaking  help, 
a  ready  and  reviving  associate  in  marriage  ?  .  .  .  . 
As  for  that  other  burning,  which  is  but  as  it  were 
the  venom  of  a  lusty  and  over-abounding  concoction, 
strict  life  and  labor,  with  the  abatement  of  a  full 
diet,  may  keep  that  low  and  obedient  enough ;  but 
this  pure  and  more  inbred  desire  of  joining  to  itself 
in  conjugal  fellowship  a  fit  conversing  soul  (which 
desire  is  properly  called  love)  "is  stronger  than 
death,"  as  the  spouse  of  Christ  thought;  "many 
waters  cannot  quench  it,  neither  can  the  floods 
drown  it."  .... 

But  all  ingenuous  men  will  see  that  the  dignity 
and  blessing  of  marriage  is  placed  rather  in  the 
mutual  enjoyment  of  that  which  the  wanting  soul 
needfully  seeks,  than  of  that  which  the  plenteous 
body  would  joyfully  give  away.  Hence  it  is  that 
Plato  in  his  festival  discourse  brings  in  Socrates 
relating  what  he  feigned  to  have  learned  from  the 
prophetess  Diotima,  how  Love  was  the  son  of 
Penury,  begot  of  Plenty  in  the  garden  of  Jupiter. 
Which  divinely  sorts  with  that  which  in  effect 
Moses  tells  us,  that  Love  was  the  son  of  Loneli- 
ness, begot  in  Paradise  by  that  sociable  and  helpful 


DISCIPLINE  OF  DIVORCE.  147 

aptitude  which  God  implanted  between  man  and 
woman  toward  each  other.  The  same,  also,  is  that 
burning  mentioned  by  St.  Paul,  whereof  marriage 
ought  to  be  the  remedy :  the  flesh  hath  other  mu- 
tual and  easy  curbs  which  are  in  the  power  of  any 
temperate  man.  When,  therefore,  this  original  and 
sinless  penury,  or  loneliness  of  the  soul,  cannot  lay 
itself  down  by  the  side  of  such  a  meet  and  accept- 
able union  as  God  ordained  in  marriage,  at  least  in 
some  proportion,  it  cannot  conceive  and  bring  forth 
love,  but  remains  utterly  unmarried  under  a  former 
wedlock,  and  still  burns,  in  the  proper  meaning  of 
St.  Paul.  Then  enters  Hate ;  not  that  hate  that 
sins,  but  that  which  only  is  natural  dissatisfaction, 
and  the  turning  aside  from  a  mistaken  object:  if 
that  mistake  have  done  injury,  it  fails  not  to  dis- 
miss with  recompense ;  for  to  retain  still,  and  not 
be  able  to  love,  is  to  heap  up  more  injury.  Thence 
this  wise  and  pious  law  of  dismission  now  defended 
took  beginning :  he,  therefore,  who,  lacking  of  his 
due  in  the  most  native  and  humane  end  of  mar- 
riage, thinks  it  better  to  part  than  to  live  sadly  and 
injuriously  to  that  cheerful  covenant,  (for  not  to  be 
beloved,  and  yet  retained,  is  the  greatest  injury  to 
a  gentle  spirit,)  he,  I  say,  who  therefore  seeks  to 
part,  is  one  who  highly  honors  the  married  life  and 
would  not  stain  it:  and  the  reasons  which  now 
move  him  to  divorce  are  equal  to  the  best  of  those 
that  could  first  warrant  him  to  marry ;  for,  as  was 
plainly  shown,  both  the  hate  which  now  diverts 


148  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

him,  and  the  loneliness  which  leads  him  still  power- 
fully to  seek  a  fit  help,  hath  not  the  least  grain  of 
a  sin  in  it,  if  he  be  worthy  to  understand  him- 
self. .... 

Marriage  is  a  covenant,  the  very  being  whereof 
consists  not  in  a  forced  cohabitation,  and  counter- 
feit performance  of  duties,  but  in  unfeigned  love 
and  peace  :  and  of  matrimonial  love,  no  doubt  but 
that  was  chiefly  meant,  which  by  the  ancient  sages 
was  thus  parabled ;  that  Love,  if  he  be  not  twin 
born,  yet  hath  a  brother  wondrous  like  him,  called 
Anteros ;  whom,  while  he  seeks  all  about,  his  chance 
is  to  meet  with  many  false  and  feigning  desires,  that 
wander  singly  up  and  down  in  his  likeness :  by 
them  in  their  borrowed  garb,  Love,  though  not 
wholly  blind,  as  poets  wrong  him,  yet  having  but 
one  eye,  as  being  born  an  archer  aiming,  and  that 
eye  not  the  quickest  in  this  dark  region  here  below, 
which  is  not  Love's  proper  sphere,  partly  out  of 
the  simplicity  and  credulity  which  is  native  to  him, 
often  deceived,  embraces  and  consorts  him  with 
these  obvious  and  suborned  striplings,  as  if  they 
were  his  mother's  own  sons  ;  for  so  he  thinks  them, 
while  they  subtilely  keep  themselves  most  on  his 
blind  side.  But  after  a  while,  as  his  manner  is, 
when  soaring  up  into  the  high  tower  of  his  Apo- 
gaeum,  above  the  shadow  of  the  earth,  he  darts  out 
the  direct  rays  of  his  then  most  piercing  eyesight 
upon  the  impostures  and  trim  disguises  that  were 
used  with  him,  and  discerns  that  this  is  not  his 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  149 

genuine  brother,  as  he  imagined ;  he  has  no  longer 
the  power  to  hold  fellowship  with  such  a  personated' 
mate  :  for  straight  his  arrows  lose  their  golden 
heads,  and  shed  their  purple  feathers,  his  silken 
braids  untwine,  and  slip  their  knots,  and  that 
original  and  fiery  virtue  given  him  by  fate  all  on  a 
sudden  goes  out,  and  leaves  him  undeified  and  de- 
spoiled of  all  his  force ;  till  finding  Anteros  at  last, 
he  kindles  and  repairs  the  almost-faded  ammunition 
of  his  deity  by  the  reflection  of  a  coequal  and 
homogeneal  fire.  Thus  mine  author  sung  it  to  me : 
and  by  the  leave  of  those  who  would  be  counted 
the  only  grave  ones,  this  is  no  mere  amatorious 
novel ;  (though  to  be  wise  and  skilful  in  these 
matters,  men  heretofore  of  greatest  name  in  virtue 
have  esteemed  it  one  of  the  highest  arcs,  that  hu- 
man contemplation  circling  upwards  can  make  from 
the  globy  sea  whereon  she  stands ;)  but  this  is  a 
deep  and  serious  verity,  showing  us  that  love  in 
marriage  cannot  live  nor  subsist  unless  it  be  mu- 
tual ;  and  where  love  cannot  be,  there  can  be  left 
of  wedlock  nothing  but  the  empty  husk  of  an  out- 
side matrimony,  as  undelightful  and  unpleasing  to 

God  as  any  other  kind  of  hypocrisy 

As  those  priests  of  old  were  not  to  be  long  in 
sorrow,  or  if  they  were,  they  could  not  rightly 
execute  their  function  ;  so  every  true  Christian,  in 
a  higher  order  of  priesthood,  is  a  person  dedicate 
to  joy  and  peace,  offering  himself  a  lively  sacrifice 
of  praise  and  thanksgiving,  and  there  is  no  Chris- 


150  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

tian  duty  that  is  not  to  be  seasoned  and  set  off  with 

cheerishness 

That  there  is  a  hidden  efficacy  of  love  and  hatred 
in  man  as  well  as  in  other  kinds,  not  moral  but 
natural,  which,  though  not  always  in  the  choice, 
yet  in  the  success  of  marriage  will  ever  be  most 
predominant :  besides  daily  experience,  the  author 
of  Ecclesiasticus,  whose  wisdom  hath  set  him  next 
the  Bible,  acknowledges,  xiii.  16,  "  A  man,"  saith 
he,  "  will  cleave  to  his  like."  But  what  might  be 
the  cause,  whether  each  one's  allotted  genius  or 
proper  star,  or  whether  the  supernal  influence  of 
schemes  and  angular  aspects,  or  this  elemental  era- 
sis  here  below ;  whether  all  these  jointly  or  singly 
meeting  friendly,  or  unfriendly  in  either  party,  I 
dare  not,  with  the  men  I  am  like  to  clash,  appear 
so  much  a  philosopher  as  to  conjecture.  The  an- 
•cient  proverb  in  Homer,  less  abstruse,  entitles  this 
"work  of  leading  each  like  person  to  his  like,  pecu- 
liarly to  God  himself:  which  is  plain  enough  also 
"by  his  naming  of  a  meet  or  like  help  in  the  first 
espousal  instituted ;  and  that  every  woman  is  meet 
for  every  man,  none  so  absurd  as  to  affirm.  Seeing 
then  there  is  a  twofold  seminary,  or  stock  in  nature, 
from  whence  are  derived  the  issues  of  love  and 
hatred,  distinctly  flowing  through  the  whole  mass 
of  created  things,  and  that  God's  doing  ever  is  to 
bring  the  due  likenesses  and  harmonies  of  his 
works  together,  except,  when  out  of  two  contraries 
met  to  their  own  destruction,  he  moulds  a  third 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  151 

existence ;  and  that  it  is  error,  or  some  evil  angel 
which  either  blindly  or  maliciously  hath  drawn 
together,  in  two  persons  ill  embarked  in  wedlock, 
the  sleeping  discords  and  enmities  of  nature,  lulled 
on  purpose  with  some  false  bait,  that  they  may 
wake  to  agony  and  strife,  later  than  prevention 
could  have  wished,  if  from  the  bent  of  just  and 
honest  intentions  beginning  what  was  begun  and 
so  continuing,  all  that  is  equal,  all  that  is  fair  and 
possible  hath  been  tried,  and  no  accommodation 
likely  to  succeed ;  what  folly  is  it  still  to  stand 
combating  and  battering  against  invincible  causes 
and  effects,  with  evil  upon  evil,  till  either  the  best 
of  our  days  be  lingered  out,  or  ended  with  some 
speeding  sorrow !  .  .  .  . 

If  the  law  allow  sin,  it  enters  into  a  kind  of  cove- 
nant with  sin ;  and  if  it  do,  there  is  not  a  greater  sin- 
ner in  the  world  than  the  law  itself.  The  law,  to  use 
an  allegory  something  different  from  that  in  Philo 
Judaeus  concerning  Amalek,  though  haply  more 
significant,  the  law  is  the  Israelite,  and  hath  this 
absolute  charge  given  it,  Deut.  xxv.  "  To  blot  out 
memory  of  sin,  the  Amalekite,  from  under  heaven, 
not  to  forget  it."  Again,  the  law  is  the  Israelite, 
and  hath  this  express  repeated  command,  "  to  make 
no  covenant  with  sin,  the  Canaanite,"  but  to  ex- 
pel him,  lest  he  prove  a  snare.  And  to  say 
truth,  it  were  too  rigid  and  reasonless  to  proclaim 
such  an  enmity  between  man  and  man,  were  it 
not  the  type  of  a  greater  enmity  between  law  and 


152  FROM* THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

sin.  I  speak  even  now,  as  if  sin  were  condemned 
in  a  perpetual  villanage  never  to  be  free  by  law, 
never  to  be  manumitted :  but  sure  sin  can  have  no 
tenure  by  law,  at  all,  but  is  rather  an  eternal  out- 
law, and  in  hostility  with  law  past  all  atonement ; 
both  diagonal  contraries,  as  much  allowing  one 
another,  as  day  and  night  together  in  one  hemis- 
phere. Or  if  it  be  possible,  that  sin  with  his 
darkness  may  come  to  composition,  it  cannot  be 
without  a  foul  eclipse  and  twilight  to  the  law, 
whose  brightness  ought  to  surpass  the  noon 

If  it  were  such  a  cursed  act  of  Pilate,  a  subor- 
dinate judge  to  Csesar,  overswayed  by  those  hard 
hearts,  with  much  ado  to  suffer  one  transgression 
of  law  but  once  ;  what  is  it  then  with  less  ado  to 
publish  a  law  of  transgression  for  many  ages? 
Did  God  for  this  come  down  and  cover  the  mount 
of  Sinai  with  his  glory,  uttering  in  thunder  those 
his  sacred  ordinances  out  of  the  bottomless  treasures 
of  his  wisdom  and  infinite  pureness,  to  patch  up  an 
ulcerous  and  rotten  commonwealth  with  strict  and 
stern  injunctions,  to  wash  the  skin  and  garments 
for  every  unclean  touch  ;  and  such  easy  permis- 
sion given  to  pollute  the  soul  with  adulteries  by 
public  authority,  without  disgrace  or  question  ?  .  .  . . 

The  hidden  ways  of  his  providence  we  adore 
and  search  not,  but  the  law  is  his  revealed  will, 
his  complete,  his  evident  and  certain  will :  herein 
he  appears  to  us,  as  it  were,  in  human  shape,  en- 
ters into  covenant  with  us,  swears  to  keep  it,  binds 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  153 

himself  like  a  just  lawgiver  to  his  own  prescrip- 
tions, gives  himself  to  be  understood  by  men,  judges 
and  is  judged,  measures  and  is  commensurate  to 
right  reason  ;  cannot  require  less  of  us  in  one  can- 
tie  of  his  law  than  in  another;  his  legal  justice 
cannot  be  so  fickle  and  variable,  sometimes  like  a 
devouring  fire,  and  by  and  by  connivent  in  the 
embers,  or  if  I  may  so  say,  oscitant  and  supine. 
The  vigor  of  his  law  could  no  more  remit,  than  the 
hallowed  fire  upon  his  altar  could  be  let  go  out. 
The  lamps  that  burned  before  him  might  need 

snuffing,  but  the  light  of  his  law  never 

Whenas  the  doctrine  of  Plato  and  Chrysippus, 
with  their  followers,  the  academics  and  the  stoics, 
who  knew  not  what  a  consummate  and  most  adorned 
Pandora  was  bestowed  upon  Adam,  to  be  the  nurse 
and  guide  of  his  arbitrary  happiness  and  persever- 
ance, I  mean,  his  native  innocence  and  perfection, 
which  might  have  kept  him  from  being  our  true 
Epimetheus  :  and  though  they  taught  of  virtue 
and  vice  to  be  both  the  gift  of  divine  destiny,  they 
could  yet  give  reasons,  not  invalid,  to  justify  the 
councils  of  God  and  fate  from  the  insulsity  of  mor- 
tal tongues :  that  man's  own  free  will  self-corrupted, 
is  the  adequate  and  sufficient  cause  of  his  disobe- 
dience besides  fate  ;  as  Homer  also  wanted  not  to 
express,  both  in  his  Iliad  and  Odyssee.  And  Ma- 
nilius  the  poet,  although  in  his  fourth  book  he  tells 
of  some  "  created  both  to  sin  and  punishment " ; 
yet  without  murmuring,  and  with  an  industrious 
7* 


154  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

cheerfulness,  he  acquits  the  Deity.  They  were 
not  ignorant,  in  their  heathen  lore,  that  it  is  most 
godlike  to  punish  those  who  of  his  creatures  be- 
came his  enemies  with  the  greatest  punishment ; 
and  they  could  attain  also  to  think,  that  the  great- 
est, when  God  himself  throws  a  man  furthest  from 
him ;  which  then  they  held  he  did,  when  he 
blinded,  hardened,  and  stirred  up  his  offenders,  to 
finish  and  pile  up  their  desperate  work  since  they 
had  undertaken  it.  To  banish  forever  into  a  local 
hell,  whether  in  the  air  or  in  the  centre,  or  in  that 
uttermost  and  bottomless  gulf  of  chaos,  deeper 
from  holy  bliss  than  the  world's  diameter  multi- 
plied ;  they  thought  not  a  punishing  so  proper  and 
proportionate  for  God  to  inflict,  as  to  punish  sin 
with  sin.  Thus  were  the  common  sort  of  Gentiles 
wont  to  think,  without  any  wry  thoughts  cast  upon 
divine  governance.  And  therefore  Cicero,  not  in 
his  Tusculan  or  Campanian  retirements  among  the 
learned  wits  of  that  age,  but  even  in  the  senate  to 
a  mixed  auditory,  (though  he  were  sparing  other- 
wise to  broach  his  philosophy  among  statists  and 
lawyers,)  yet  as  to  this  point,  both  in  his  Oration 
against  Piso,  and  in  that  which  is  about  the  answers 
of  the  soothsayers  against  Clodius,  he  declares  it 
publicly,  as  no  paradox  to  common  ears,  that  God 
cannot  punish  man  more,  nor  make  him  more  mis- 
erable, than  still  by  making  him  more  sinful.  Thus 
we  see  how  in  this  controversy  the  justice  of  God 
stood  upright  even  among  heathen  disputers 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  155 

But  it  was  not  approved.  So  much  the  worse 
that  it  was  allowed ;  as  if  sin  had  overmastered  the 
word  of  God,  to  conform  her  steady  and  straight 
rule  to  sin's  crookedness,  which  is  impossible.  Be- 
sides, what  needed  a  positive  grant  of  that  which 
was  not  approved  ?  It  restrained  no  liberty  to 
him  that  could  but  use  a  little  fraud  ;  it  had  been 
better  silenced,  unless  it  were  approved  in  some 
case  or  other.  But  still  it  was  not  approved.  Mis- 
erable excusers !  he  who  doth  evil,  that  good  may 
come  thereby,  approves  not  what  he  doth  ;  and  yet 
the  grand  rule  forbids  him,  and  counts  his  damna- 
tion just  if  he  do  it.  The  sorceress  Medea  did  not 
approve  her  own  evil  doings,  yet  looked  not  to  be 
excused  for  that :  and  it  is  the  constant  opinion  of 
Plato  in  Protagoras,  and  other  of  his  dialogues, 
agreeing  with  that  proverbial  sentence  among  the 
Greeks,  that  "  no  man  is  wicked  willinglv." 
Which  also  the  Peripatetics  do  rather  distinguish 
than  deny.  What  great  thank  then  if  any  man, 
reputed  wise  and  constant,  will  neither  do,  nor 
permit  others  under  his  charge  to  do,  that  which 
he  approves  not,  especially  in  matter  of  sin  ?  but 
for  a  judge,  but  for  a  magistrate,  the  shepherd  of 
his  people,  to  surrender  up  his  approbation  against 
law,  and  his  own  judgment,  to  the  obstinacy  of 
his  herd,  what  more  unjudgelike,  unmagistratelike, 
and  in  war  more  uncommanderlike  ?  Twice  in  a 
short  time  it  was  the  undoing  of  the  Roman  state, 
first  when  Pompey,  next  when  Marcus  Brutus, 


156  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

had  not  magnanimity  enough  but  to  make  so  poor 
a  resignation  of  what  they  approved,  to  what  the 
boisterous  tribunes  and  soldiers  bawled  for.  Twice 
it  was  the  saving  of  two  of  the  greatest  common- 
wealths in  the  world,  of  Athens  by  Themistocles 
at  the  seafight  of  Salamis,  of  Rome  by  Fabius 
Maximus  in  the  Punic  war ;  for  that  these  two 
matchless  generals  had  the  fortitude  at  home, 
against  the  rashness  and  the  clamors  of  their  own 
captains  and  confederates,  to  withstand  the  doing 
or  permitting  of  what  they  could  not  approve  in 
their  duty  of  their  great  command.  Thus  far  of 
civil  prudence.  But  when  we  speak  of  sin,  let  us 
look  again  upon  the  old  reverend  Eli,  who  in  his 
heavy  punishment  found  no  difference  between  the 
doing  and  permitting  of  what  he  did  not  approve. 
If  hardness  of  heart  in  the  people  may  be  an  ex- 
cuse, why  then  is  Pilate  branded  through  all  mem- 
ory ?  He  approved  not  what  he  did,  he  openly 
protested,  he  washed  his  hands,  and  labored  not  a 
little  ere  he  would  yield  to  the  hard  hearts  of  a 
whole  people,  both  princes  and  plebeians,  importun- 
ing and  tumulting  even  to  the  fear  of  a  revolt 

The  political  law,  since  it  cannot  regulate  vice, 
is  to  restrain  it  by  using  all  means  to  root  it  out. 
But  if  it  suffer  the  weed  to  grow  up  to  any  pleas- 
urable or  contented  height  upon  what  pretext  so- 
ever, it  fastens  the  root,  it  prunes  and  dresses  vice, 
as  if  it  were  a  good  plant.  Let  no  man  doubt 
therefore  to  affirm,  that  it  is  not  so  hurtful  or  dis- 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  157 

honorable  to  a  commonwealth,  nor  so  much  to  the 
hardening  of  hearts,  when  those  worse  faults  pre- 
tended to  be  feared  are  committed,  by  who  so 
dares  under  strict  and  executed  penalty,  as  when 
those  less  faults  tolerated  for  fear  of  greater,  hard- 
en their  faces,  not  their  hearts  only,  under  the  pro- 
teclion  of  public  authority.  For  what  less  indig- 
nity were  this,  than  as  if  justice  herself,  the  queen 
of  virtues,  descending  from  her  sceptred  royalty, 
instead  of  conquering,  should  compound  and  treat 
with  sin,  her  eternal  adversary  and  rebel,  upon  ig- 
noble terms  ?  or  as  if  the  judicial  law  were  like 
that  untrusty  steward  in  the  Gospel,  and  instead  of 
calling  in  the  debts  of  his  moral  master,  should 
give  out  subtile  and  sly  acquittances  to  keep  him- 
self from  begging  ?  or  let  us  person  him  like  some 
wretched  itinerary  judge,  who,  to  gratify  his  delin- 
quents before  him,  would  let  them  basely  break  his 
head,  lest  they  should  pull  him  from  the  bench,  and 
throw  him  over  the  bar.  Unless  we  had  rather 
think  both  moral  and  judicial,  full  of  malice  and 
deadly  purpose,  conspired  to  let  the  debtor  Israel- 
ite, the  seed  of  Abraham,  run  on  about  a  bankrupt 
score,  flattered  with  insufficient  and  ensnaring  dis- 
charges, that  so  he  might  be  haled  to  a  more  cruel 
forfeit  for  all  the  indulgent  arrears  which  those 
judicial  acquittances  had  engaged  him  in.  No, 
no,  this  cannot  be,  that  the  law,  whose  integrity 
and  faithfulness  is  next  to  God,  should  be  either 
the  shameless  broker  of  our  impunities,  or  the  in- 


158  FROM  THE  DOCTRINE  AND 

tended  instrument  of  our  destruction.  The  meth- 
od of  holy  correction,  such  as  became  the  common- 
wealth of  Israel,  is  not  to  bribe  sin  with  sin,  to 
capitulate  and  hire  out  one  crime  with  another ; 
but  with  more  noble  and  graceful  severity  than 
Popilius  the  Roman  legate  used  with  Antiochus,  to 
limit  and  level  out  the  direct  way  from  vice  to  vir- 
tue, with  straightest  and  exactest  lines  on  either 
side,  not  winding  or  indenting  so  much  as  to  the 
right  hand  of  fair  pretences.  Violence  indeed  and 
insurrection  may  force  the  law  to  suffer  what  it 
cannot  mend ;  but  to  write  a  decree  in  allowance 
of  sin,  as  soon  can  the  hand  of  justice  rot  off.  Let 
this  be  ever  concluded  as  a  truth  that  will  outlive 
the  faith  of  those  that  seek  to  bear  it  down 

God  loves  not  to  plough  out  the  heart  of  our  en- 
deavors with  over-hard  and  sad  tasks.  God  delights 
not  to  make  a  drudge  of  virtue,  whose  actions  must 
be  all  elective  and  unconstrained.  Forced  virtue 
is  as  a  bolt  overshot,  it  goes  neither  forward  nor 
backward,  and  does  no  good  as  it  stands 

If  any,  therefore,  hath  been  through  misadven- 
ture ill  engaged  in  this  contracted  evil,  and  finds 
the  fits  and  workings  of  a  high  impatience  frequent- 
ly upon  him ;  of  all  those  wild  words  which  men 
in  misery  think  to  ease  themselves  by  uttering,  let 
him  not  open  his  lips  against  the  providence  of 
Heaven,  or  tax  the  ways  of  God  and  his  divine 
truth ;  for  they  are  equal,  easy  and  not  burden- 
some ;  nor  do  they  ever  cross  the  just  and  reason- 


DISCIPLINE   OF  DIVORCE.  159 

able  desires  of  men,  nor  involve  this  our  portion 
of  mortal  life  into  a  necessity  of  sadness  and  mal- 
content, by  laws  commanding  over  the  unreduci- 
ble  antipathies  of  nature,  sooner  or  later  found,  but 
allow  us  to  remedy  and  shake  off  those  evils  into 
which  human  error  hath  led  us  through  the  midst 
of  our  best  intentions,  and  to  support  our  incident 
extremities  by  that  authentic  precept  of  sovereign 
charity,  whose  grand  commission  is  to  do  and  to 
dispose  over  all  the  ordinances  of  God  to  man,  that 
love  and  truth  may  advance  each  other  to  everlast- 
ing. While  we,  literally  superstitious,  through 
customary  faintness  of  heart,  not  venturing  to 
pierce  with  our  free  thoughts  into  the  full  latitude 
of  nature  and  religion,  abandon  ourselves  to  serve 
under  the  tyranny  of  usurped  opinions  ;  suffering 
those  ordinances  which  were  allotted  to  our  solace 
and  reviving,  to  trample  over  us,  and  hale  us  into 
a  multitude  of  sorrows,  which  God  never  meant  us. 
And  where  he  sets  us  in  a  fair  allowance  of  way, 
with  honest  liberty  and  prudence  to  our  guard,  we 
never  leave  subtilizing  and  casuisting  till  we  have 
straitened  and  pared  that  liberal  path  into  a  ra- 
zor's edge  to  walk  on  ;  between  a  precipice  of  un- 
necessary mischief  on  either  side,  and  starting  at 
every  false  alarm,  we  do  not  know  which  way  to 
set  a  foot  forward  with  manly  confidence  and 
Christian  resolution,  through  the  confused  ringing 

in  our  ears  of  panic  scruples  and  amazements 

Hate  is  of  all  things  the  mightiest  divider ;  nay,  is 


160  DOCTRINE   OF  DIVORCE. 

division  itself.  To  couple  hatred  therefore,  though 
wedlock  try  all  her  golden  links,  and  borrow  to  her 
aid  all  the  iron  manacles  and  fetters  of  law,  it  does 
but  seek  to  twist  a  rope  of  sand,  which  was  a  task 
they  say  that  posed  the  Devil ;  and  that  sluggish 
fiend  in  hell,  Ocnus,  whom  the  poems  tell  of, 
brought  his  idle  cordage  to  as  good  effect,  which 
never  served  to  bind  with,  but  to  feed  the  ass  that 
stood  at  his  elbow. 


FROM 


TETRACHORDON. 


'EN  of  most  renowned  virtue  have 
sometimes  by  transgressing  most  tru- 
ly kept  the  law ;  and  wisest  magis- 
trates have  permitted  and  dispensed 
it ;  while  they  looked  not  peevishly  at  the  letter, 
but  with  a  greater  spirit  at  the  good  of  mankind, 
if  always  not  written  in  the  characters  of  law,  yet 
engraven  in  the  heart  of  man  by  a  divine  impres- 
sion. This  heathens  could  see,  as  the  well-read 
in  story  can  recount  of  Solon  and  Epaminondas, 
whom  Cicero,  in  his  first  book  of  "  Invention," 
nobly  defends.  "  All  law,"  saith  he,  "  we  ought 
to  refer  to  the  common  good,  and  interpret  by  that, 
not  by  the  scroll  of  letters.  No  man  observes  law 
for  law's  sake,  but  for  the  good  of  them  for  whom 
it  was  made."  The  rest  might  serve  well  to  lec- 
ture these  times,  deluded  through  belly  doctrines 
into  a  devout  slavery.  The  Scripture  also  affords 
us  David  in  the  showbread,  Hezekiah  in  the  pass- 
over,  sound  and  safe  transgressors  of  the  literal 


162  FROM  TETRACHORDON. 

command,  which  also  dispensed  not  seldom  with 
itself;  and  taught  us  on  what  just  occasions  to  do 
so:  until  our  Saviour,  for  whom  that  great  and 
godlike  work  was  reserved,  redeemed  us  to  a  state 

O  7 

above  prescriptions,  by  dissolving  the  whole  law 

into  charity 

No  mortal  nature  can  endure,  either  in  the 
actions  of  religion,  or  study  of  wisdom,  without 
sometime  slackening  the  cords  of  intense  thought 
and  labor,  which,  lest  we  should  think  faulty,  God 
himself  conceals  us  not  his  own  recreations  before 
the  world  was  built :  "  I  was,"  saith  the  Eternal 
Wisdom,  "  daily  his  delight,  playing  always  before 
him."  And  to  him,  indeed,  wisdom  is  as  a  high 
tower  of  pleasure,  but  to  us  a  steep  hill,  and  we 
toiling  ever  about  the  bottom.  He  executes  with 
ease  the  exploits  of  his  omnipotence,  as  easy  as 
with  us  it  is  to  will ;  but  no  worthy  enterprise  can 
be  done  by  us  without  continual  plodding  and 
wearisomeness  to  our  faint  and  sensitive  abilities. 
We  cannot,  therefore,  always  be  contemplative,  or 
pragmatical  abroad,  but  have  need  of  some  delight- 
ful intermissions,  wherein  the  enlarged  soul  may 
leave  off  a  while  her  severe  schooling,  and,  like  a 
glad  youth  in  wandering  vacancy,  may  keep  her 
holidays  to  joy  and  harmless  pastime;  which,  as 
she  cannot  well  do  without  company,  so  in  no 
company  so  well  as  where  the  different  sex,  in  most 
resembling  unlikeness,  and  most  unlike  resem- 
blance, cannot  but  please  best,  and  be  pleased  in 


FROM  TETRACHORDON.  163 

the  aptitude  of  that  variety.  Whereof,  lest  we 
should  be  too  timorous,  in  the  awe  that  our  flat 
sages  would  form  us  and  dress  us,  wisest  Solomon 
among  his  gravest  proverbs  countenances  a  kind 
of  ravishment  and  erring  fondness  in  the  entertain- 
ment of  wedded  leisures ;  and  in  the  Song  of  Songs, 
which  is  generally  believed,  even  in  the  jolliest  ex- 
pressions, to  figure  the  spousals  of  the  Church  with 
Christ,  sings  of  a  thousand  raptures  between  those 
two  lovely  ones  far  on  the  hither  side  of  carnal 
enjoyment.  By  these  instances,  and  more  which 
might  be  brought,  we  may  imagine  how  indulgently 
God  provided  against  man's  loneliness ;  that  he 
approved  it  not,  as  by  himself  declared  not  good ; 
that  he  approved  the  remedy  thereof,  as  of  his 
own  ordaining,  consequently  good ;  and  as  he 
ordained  it,  so  doubtless  proportionably  to  our 
fallen  estate  he  gives  it;  else  were  his  ordinance 
at  least  in  vain,  and  we  for  all  his  gifts  still  empty 

handed 

This  I  amaze  me  at,  that  though  all  the  superior 
and  nobler  ends  both  of  marriage  and  of  the  mar- 
ried persons  be  absolutely  frustrate,  the  matrimony 
stirs  not,  loses  no  hold,  remains  as  rooted  as  the 
centre :  but  if  the  body  bring  but  in  a  complaint 
of  frigidity,  by  that  cold  application  only  this  ada- 
mantine Alp  of  wedlock  has  leave  to  dissolve  ; 
which  else  all  the  machinations  of  religious  or  civil 
reason  at  the  suit  of  a  distressed  mind,  either  for 
divine  worship  or  human  conversation  violated, 


164  FROM  TETRACHORDON. 

cannot  unfasten.  What  courts  of  concupiscence 
are  these,  wherein  fleshly  appetite  is  heard  before 
right  reason,  lust  before  love  or  devotion  ?  They 
may  be  pious  Christians  together,  they  may  be  lov- 
ing and  friendly,  they  may  be  helpful  to  each  other 
in  the  family,  but  they  cannot  couple ;  that  shall 
divorce  them,  though  either  party  would  not. 
They  can  neither  serve  God  together,  nor  one  be 
at  peace  with  the  other,  nor  be  good  in  the  family 
one  to  other;  but  live  as  they  were  dead,  or  live 
as  they  were  deadly  enemies  in  a  cage  together : 
it  is  all  one,  they  can  couple,  they  shall  not  divorce 
till  death,  no,  though  this  sentence  be  their  death. 
What  is  this  besides  tyranny,  but  to  turn  nature 
upside  down,  to  make  both  religion  and  the  mind 
of  man  wait  upon  the  slavish  errands  of  the  body, 
and  not  the  body  to  follow  either  the  sanctity  or 
the  sovereignty  of  the  mind,  unspeakably  wronged, 
and  with  all  equity  complaining  ?  what  is  this  but 
to  abuse  the  sacred  and  mysterious  bed  of  marriage 
to  be  the  compulsive  sty  of  an  ingrateful  and  malig- 
nant lust,  stirred  up  only  from  a  carnal  acrimony, 
without  either  love  or  peace,  or  regard  to  any 
other  thing  holy  or  human  ?  This  I  admire,  how 
possibly  it  should  inhabit  thus  long  in  the  sense  of 
so  many  disputing  theologians,  unless  it  be  the 
lowest  lees  of  a  canonical  infection  liver-grown  to 
their  sides,  which,  perhaps,  will  never  uncling, 
without  the  strong  abstersive  of  some  heroic  magis- 
trate, whose  mind,  equal  to  his  high  office,  dares 


FROM  TETRACHORDON.  165 

lead  him  both  to  know  and  to  do  without  their 
frivolous  case-putting 

All  arts  acknowledge,  that  then  only  we  know 
certainly,  when  we  can  define;  for  definition  is 
that  which  refines  the  pure  essence  of  things  from 
the  circumstance 

For  no  other  cause  did  Christ  assure  us  that 
whatsoever  things  we  bind  or  slacken  on  earth,  are 
so  in  heaven,  but  to  signify  that  the  Christian  ar- 
bitrement  of  charity  is  supreme  decider  of  all  con- 
troversy, and  supreme  resolver  of  all  Scripture,  not 
as  the  pope  determines  for  his  own  tyranny,  but  as 
the  Church  ought  to  determine  for  its  own  true 

liberty I  omit  many  instances,  many  proofs 

and  arguments  of  this  kind,  which  alone  would 
compile  a  just  volume,  and  shall  content  me  here 
to  have  shown  briefly,  that  the  great  and  almost 
only  commandment  of  the  Gospel  is,  to  command 
nothing  against  the  good  of  man,  and  much  more 
no  civil  command  against  his  civil  good.  If  we 
understand  not  this,  we  are  but  cracked  cymbals, 
we  do  but  tinkle,  we  know  nothing,  we  do  nothing, 
all  the  sweat  of  our  toilsomest  obedience  will  but 
mock  us.  And  what  we  suffer  superstitiously  re-. 
turns  us  no  thanks 

In  every  commonwealth,  when  it  decays,  corrup- 
tion makes  two  main  steps :  first,  when  men  cease 
to  do  according  to  the  inward  and  uncompelled 
actions  of  virtue,  caring  only  to  live  by  the  out- 
ward constraint  of  law,  and  turn  the  simplicity  of 


166  FROM  TETRACHORDON. 

real  good  into  the  craft  of  seeming  so  by  law.  To 
this  hypocritical  honesty  was  Rome  declined  in 
that  age  wherein  Horace  lived,  and  discovered  it 
to  Quintius. 

"  Whom  do  we  count  a  good  man,  whom  but  he 
Who  keeps  the  laws  and  statutes  of  the  Senate  ? 
Who  judges  in  great  suits  and  controversies  ? 
Whose  witness  and  opinion  wins  the  cause  ? 
But  his  own  house,  and  the  whole  neighborhood 
Sees  his  foul  inside  through  his  whited  skin." 

The  next  declining  is,  when  law  becomes  now 
too  strait  for  the  secular  manners,  and  those  too 
loose  for  the  cincture  of  law.  This  brings  in  false 

O 

and  crooked  interpretations  to  eke  out  law,  and 
invents  the  subtle  encroachments  of  obscure  tra- 
ditions hard  to  be  disproved 

If  these  be  the  limits  of  law  to  restrain  sin,  who 
so  lame  a  sinner  but  may  hop  over  them  more 
easily  than  over  those  Romulean  circumscriptions, 
not  as  Remus  did,  with  hard  success,  but  with  all 
indemnity  ?  Such  a  limiting  as  this  were  not  worth 
the  mischief  that  accompanies  it.  This  law  there- 
fore, not  bounding  the  supposed  sin,  by  permitting 
enlarges  it,  gives  it  enfranchisement.  And  never 
greater  confusion,  than  when  law  and  sin  move 
their  landmarks,  mix  their  territories,  and  corre- 
spond, have  intercourse,  and  traffic  together.  When 
law  contracts  a  kindred  and  hospitality  with  trans- 
gression, becomes  the  godfather  of  sin,  and  names 
it  lawful ;  when  sin  revels  and  gossips  within  the 
arsenal  of  law,  plays  and  dandles  the  artillery  of 


FROM  TETRACHORDON.  167 

justice  that  should  be  bent  against  her,  this  is  a 
fair  limitation  indeed.  Besides,  it  is  an  absurdity 
to  say  that  law  can  measure  sin,  or  moderate  sin : 
sin  is  not  in  a  predicament  to  be  measured  and 
modified,  but  is  always  an  excess.  The  least  sin 
that  is  exceeds  the  measure  of  the  largest  law  that 
can  be  good ;  and  is  as  boundless  as  that  vacuity 
beyond  the  world.  If  once  it  square  to  the  measure 
of  law,  it  ceases  to  be  an  excess,  and  consequently 
ceases  to  be  a  sin ;  or  else  law,  conforming  itself  to 
the  obliquity  of  sin,  betrays  itself  to  be  not  straight, 
but  crooked,  and  so  immediately  no  law.  And 
the  improper  conceit  of  moderating  sin  by  law  will 
appear,  if  we  can  imagine  any  lawgiver  so  sense- 
less as  to  decree,  that  so  far  a  man  may  steal,  and 
thus  far  be  drunk,  that  moderately  he  may  cozen, 
and  moderately  commit  adultery.  To  the  same 
extent  it  would  be  as  pithily  absurd  to  publish,  that 
a  man  may  moderately  divorce,  if  to  do  that  be 
entirely  naught.  But  to  end  this  moot :  the  law 
of  Moses  is  manifest  to  fix  no  limit  therein  at  all, 
or  such  at  least  as  impeaches  the  fraudulent  abuser 
no  more  than  if  it  were  not  set ;  only  requires  the 
dismissive  writing  without  other  caution,  leaves 
that  to  the  inner  man,  and  the  bar  of  conscience. 
But  it  stopped  other  sins.  This  is  as  vain  as  the 
rest,  and  dangerously  uncertain :  the  contrary  to 
be  feared  rather,  that  one  sin,  admitted  courteously 
by  law,  opened  the  gate  to  another.  However, 
evil  must  not  be  done  for  good.  And  it  were  a 
fall  to  be  lamented,  and  indignity  unspeakable,  if 


168  FROM  TETRACHORDON. 

law  should  become  tributary  to  sin,  her  slave,  and 
forced  to  yield  up  into  his  hands  her  awful  minis- 
ter, punishment;  should  buy  out  our  peace  with 
sin  for  sin,  paying,  as  it  were,  her  so  many  Phil- 
istian  foreskins  to  the  proud  demand  of  transgres- 
sion. But  suppose  it  any  way  possible  to  limit  sin, 
to  put  a  girdle  about  that  chaos,  suppose  it  also 
good ;  yet  if  to  permit  sin  by  law  be  an  abomina- 
tion in  the  eyes  of  God,  as  Cameron  acknowledges, 
the  evil  of  permitting  will  eat  out  the  good  of  lim- 
iting. For  though  sin  be  not  limited,  there  can 
but  evil  come  out  of  evil ;  but  if  it  be  permitted 
and  decreed  lawful  by  divine  law,  of  force  then  sin 
must  proceed  from  the  Infinite  Good,  which  is  a 
dreadful  thought.  But  if  the  restraining  of  sin  by 
this  permission  being  good,  as  this  author  testifies, 
be  more  good  than  the  permission  of  more  sin  by 
the  restraint  of  divorce,  and  that  God,  weighing 
both  these  like  two  ingots,  in  the  perfect  scales  of 
his  justice  and  providence,  found  them  so,  and 
others,  coming  without  authority  from  God,  shall 
change  this  counterpoise,  and  judge  it  better  to  let 
sin  multiply  by  setting  a  judicial  restraint  upon 
divorce  which  Christ  never  set ;  then  to  limit  sin 
by  this  permission,  as  God  himself  thought  best  to 
permit  it,  it  will  behove  them  to  consult  betimes 
whether  these  their  balances  be  not  false  and 
abominable,  and  this  their  limiting  that  which 
God  loosened,  and  their  loosening  the  sins  that 
he  limited,  which  they  confess  was  good  to  do: 
and  were  it  possible  to  do  by  law,  doubtless  it 


FROM  TETRACHORDON.  169 

would  be  most  morally  good ;  and  they  so  believ- 
ing, as  we  hear  they  do,  and  yet  abolishing  a  law 
so  good  and  moral,  the  limiter  of  sin,  what  are 
they  else  but  contrary  to  themselves  ?  For  they 
can  never  bring  us  to  that  time  wherein  it  will  not 
be  good  to  limit  sin,  and  they  can  never  limit  it 
better  than  so  as  God  prescribed  in  his  law 

The  New  Testament,  though  it  be  said  originally 
writ  in  Greek,  yet  hath  nothing  near  so  many 
Atticisms  as  Hebraisms,  and  Syriacisms,  which 
was  the  majesty  of  God,  not  filing  the  tongue  of 
Scripture  to  a  Gentilish  idiom,  but  in  a  princely 
manner  offering  to  them  as  to  Gentiles  and  for- 
eigners grace  and  mercy,  though  not  in  foreign 
words,  yet  in  a  foreign  style  that  might  induce 
them  to  the  fountains ;  and  though  their  calling 
were  high  and  happy,  yet  still  to  acknowledge 
God's  ancient  people  their  betters,  and  that  lan- 
guage the  metropolitan  language 

For  nature  hath  her  zodiac  also,  keeps  her  great 
annual  circuit  over  human  things,  as  truly  as  the 
sun  and  planets  in  the  firmament ;  hath  her  anom- 
alies, hath  her  obliquities  in  ascensions  and  declina- 
tions, accesses  and  recesses,  as  blamelessly  as  they 
in  heaven.  And  sitting  in  her  planetary  orb  with 
two  reins  in  each  hand,  one  strait,  the  other  loose, 
tempers  the  course  of  minds  as  well  as  bodies  to 
several  conjunctions  and  oppositions,  friendly  or 
unfriendly  aspects,  consenting  oftest  with  reason, 
but  never  contrary. 
8 


FROM   THE 

TENURE   OF   KINGS   AND   MAGIS- 
TRATES. 

BAD  MEN  FAVORABLE  TO  TYRANTS. 

jF  men  within  themselves  would  be  gov- 
erned by  reason,  and  not  generally  give 
up  their  understanding  to  a  double 
tyranny,  of  custom  from  without,  and 
blind  affections  within,  they  would  discern  better 
what  it  is  to  favor  and  uphold  the  tyrant  of  a  nation. 
But,  being  slaves  within  doors,  no  wonder  that 
they  strive  so  much  to  have  the  public  state  con- 
formably governed  to  the  inward  vicious  rule  by 
which  they  govern  themselves.  For,  indeed,  none 
can  love  freedom  heartily  but  good  men ;  the  rest 
love  not  freedom  but  license,  which  never  hath 
more  scope,  or  more  indulgence  than  under  tyrants. 
Hence  is  it  that  tyrants  are  not  oft  offended,  nor 
stand  much  in  doubt  of  bad  men,  as  being  all 
naturally  servile ;  but  in  whom  virtue  and  true 
worth  most  is  eminent,  them  they  fear  in  earnest, 
as  by  right  their  masters;  against  them  lies  all 
their  hatred  and  suspicion.  Consequently,  neither 


OF  KINGS  AND  MA  G1STRA  TES.         171 

do  bad  men  hate  tyrants,  but  have  been  always 
readiest,  with  the  falsified  names  of  loyalty  and 
obedience,  to  color  over  their  base  compliances. 

It  is  true,  that  most  men  are  apt  enough  to  civil 
wars  and  commotions  as  a  novelty,  and  for  a  flash 
hot  and  active ;  but  through  sloth  or  inconstancy, 
and  weakness  of  spirit,  either  fainting  ere  their 
own  pretences,  though  never  so  just,  be  half 
attained,  or  through  an  inbred  falsehood  and 
wickedness,  betray,  ofttimes  to  destruction  with 
themselves,  men  of  noblest  temper  joined  with 
them  for  causes  whereof  they  in  their  rash  under- 
takings were  not  capable.  If  God  and  a  good 
cause  give  them  victory,  the  prosecution  whereof 
for  the  most  part  inevitably  draws  after  it  the 
alteration  of  laws,  change  of  government,  down- 
fall of  princes  with  their  families ;  then  comes  the 
task  to  those  worthies  which  are  the  soul  of  that 
enterprise,  to  be  sweat  and  labored  out  amidst  the 
throng  and  noses  of  vulgar  and  irrational  men. 
Some  contesting  for  privileges,  customs,  forms,  and 
that  old  entanglement  of  iniquity,  their  gibberish 
laws,  though  the  badge  of  their  ancient  slavery. 
Others,  who  have  been  fiercest  against  their  prince, 
under  the  notion  of  a  tyrant,  and  no  mean  incen- 
diaries of  the  war  against  them,  when  God,  out  of 
his  providence  and  high  disposal  hath  delivered 
him  into  the  hand  of  their  brethren,  on  a  sudden 
and  in  a  new  garb  of  allegiance,  which  their  doings 


172  FROM  THE   TENURE   OF 

have  long  since  cancelled,  they  plead  for  him,  pity 
him,  extol  him,  protest  against  those  that  talk  of 
bringing  him  to  the  trial  of  justice,  which  is  the 
sword  of  God,  superior  to  all  mortal  things,  in 
whose  hand  soever  by  apparent  signs  his  testified 
wih1  is  to  put  it 

JUSTICE   AGAINST   THE   TYRANT. 

Bur  who  in  particular  is  a  tyrant,  cannot  be  de- 
termined in  a  general  discourse,  otherwise  than  by 
supposition ;  his  particular  charge,  and  the  suffi- 
cient proof  of  it,  must  determine  that :  which  I 
leave  to  magistrates,  at  least  to  the  uprighter  sort 
of  them,  and  of  the  people,  though  in  number  less 
by  many,  in  whom  faction  least  hath  prevailed 
above  the  law  of  nature  and  right  reason,  to  judge 
as  they  find  cause.  But  this  I  dare  own  as  part 
of  my  faith,  that  if  such  a  one  there  be,  by  whose 
commission  whole  massacres  have  been  committed 
on  his  faithful  subjects,  his  provinces  offered  to 
pawn  or  alienation,  as  the  hire  of  those  whom  he 
had  solicited  to  come  in  and  destroy  whole  cities 
and  countries ;  be  he  king,  or  tyrant,  or  emperor, 
the  sword  of  justice  is  above  him ;  in  whose  hand 
soever  is  found  sufficient  power  to  avenge  the  ef- 
fusion, and  so  great  a  deluge  of  innocent  blood. 
For  if  all  human  power  to  execute,  not  accident- 
ally but  intendedly,  the  wrath  of  God  upon  evil- 
doers without  exception,  be  of  God:  then  that 


KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES.  173 

power,  whether  ordinary,  or  if  that  fail,  extraordi- 
nary, so  executing  that  intent  of  God,  is  lawful, 
and  not  to  be  resisted 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  KINGLY   GOVERNMENT. 

No  man,  who  knows  aught,  can  be  so  stupid  to 
deny,  that  all  men  naturally  were  born  free,  being 
the  image  and  resemblance  of  God  himself,  and 
were,  by  privilege  above  all  the  creatures,  born  to 
command,  and  not  to  obey :  and  that  they  lived  so, 
till  from  the  root  of  Adam's  transgression  falling 
among  themselves  to  do  wrong  and  violence,  and 
foreseeing  that  such  courses  must  needs  tend  to  the 
destruction  of  them  all,  they  agreed  by  common 
league  to  bind  each  other  from  mutual  injury,  and 
jointly  to  defend  themselves  against  any  that 
gave  disturbance  or  opposition  to  such  agreement. 
Hence  came  cities,  towns,  and  commonwealths. 
And  because  no  faith  in  all  was  found  sufficiently 
binding,  they  saw  it  needful  to  ordain  some  author- 
ity that  might  restrain  by  force  and  punishment 
what  was  violated  against  peace  and  common  right. 

This  authority  and  power  of  self-defence  and 
preservation  being  originally  and  naturally  in 
every  one  of  them,  and  unitedly  in  them  all ;  for 
ease,  for  order,  and  lest  each  man  should  be  his 
own  partial  judge,  they  communicated  and  de- 
rived either  to  one,  whom  for  the  eminence  of  his 
wisdom  and  integrity  they  chose  above  the  rest,  or 


174  FROM  THE   TENURE   OF 

to  more  than  one,  whom  they  thought  of  equal  de- 
serving: the  first  was  called  a  king;  the  other, 
magistrates  :  not  to  be  their  lords  and  masters, 
(though  afterward  those  names  in  some  places 
were  given  voluntarily  to  such  as  had  been 
authors  of  inestimable  good  to  the  people,)  but 
to  be  their  deputies  and  commissioners,  to  ex- 
ecute, by  virtue  of  their  intrusted  power,  that  jus- 
tice, which  else  every  man  by  the  bond  of  nature 
and  of  covenant  must  have  executed  for  himself, 
and  for  one  another.  And  to  him  that  shall  con- 
sider well,  why  among  free  persons  one  man  by 
civil  right  should  bear  authority  and  jurisdiction 
over  another,  no  other  end  or  reason  can  be  imagi- 
nable. 

POPULAR   CHECKS   ON  KINGLY  POWER. 

THESE  for  a  while  governed  well,  and  with  much 
equity  decided  all  things  at  their  own  arbitrament ; 
till  the  temptation  of  such  a  power,  left  absolute 
in  their  hands,  perverted  them  at  length  to  injus- 
tice and  partiality.  Then  did  they,  who  now  by 
trial  had  found  the  danger  and  inconveniences  of 
committing  arbitrary  power  to  any,  invent  laws, 
either  framed  or  consented  to  by  all,  that  should 
confine  and  limit  the  authority  of  whom  they 
chose  to  govern  them  :  that  so  man,  of  whose 
failing  they  had  proof,  might  no  more  rule  over 
them,  but  law  and  reason,  abstracted  as  much 


KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES.  175 

as  might  be  from  personal  errors  and  frailties. 
"  While,  as  the  magistrate  was  set  above  the  peo- 
ple, so  the  law  was  set  above  the  magistrate." 
When  this  would  not  serve,  but  that  the  law  was 
either  not  executed,  or  misapplied,  they  were  con- 
strained from  that  time,  the  only  remedy  left  them, 
to  put  conditions  and  take  oaths  from  all  kings  and 
magistrates  at  their  first  instalment,  to  do  impartial 
justice  by  law :  who,  upon  those  terms  and  no 
other  received  allegiance  from  the  people,  that  is 
to  say,  bond  or  covenant  to  obey  them  in  execu- 
tion of  those  laws,  which  they,  the  people,  had 
themselves  made  or  assented  to.  And  this  oft- 
times  with  express  warning,  that  if  the  king  or 
magistrate  proved  unfaithful  to  his  trust,  the  peo- 
ple would  be  disengaged.  They  added  also  coun- 
sellors and  parliaments,  not  to  be  only  at  his  beck, 
but,  with  him  or  without  him,  at  set  times,  or  at 
all  times,  when  any  danger  threatened,  to  have 
care  of  the  public  safety 

KINGS   ACCOUNTABLE   TO   LAW. 

To  say  kings  are  accountable  to  none  but  God, 
is  the  overturning  of  all  law  and  government. 
For  if  they  may  refuse  to  give  account,  then  all 
covenants  made  with  them  at  coronation,  all  oaths 
are  in  vain,  and  mere  mockeries ;  all  laws  which 
they  swear  to  keep,  made  to  no  purpose  :  for  if 
the  king  fear  not  God,  (as  how  many  of  them  do 


176  FROM  THE   TENURE  OF 

not,)  we  hold  then  our  lives  and  estates  by  the 
tenure  of  his  mere  grace  and  mercy,  as  from  a  god, 
not  a  mortal  magistrate :  a  position  that  none  but 
court-parasites  or  men  besotted  would  maintain  ! 
Aristotle,  therefore,  whom  we  commonly  allow  for 
one  of  the  best  interpreters  of  nature  and  morali- 
ty, writes  in  the  fourth  of  his  Politics,  chap.  x.  that 
"  monarchy  unaccountable  is  the  worst  sort  of  tyr- 
anny, and  least  of  all  to  be  endured  by  free-born 
men." 

And  surely  no  Christian  prince,  not  drunk  with 
high  mind,  and  prouder  than  those  pagan  Caasars 
that  deified  themselves,  would  arrogate  so  unrea- 
sonably above  human  condition,  or  derogate  so 
basely  from  a  whole  nation  of  men,  his  brethren, 
as  if  for  him  only  subsisting,  and  to  serve  his  glo- 
ry, valuing  them  in  comparison  of  his  own  brute 
will  and  pleasure  no  more  than  so  many  beasts,  or 
vermin  under  his  feet,  not  to  be  reasoned  with,  but 
to  be  trod  on ;  among  whom  there  might  be  found 
so  many  thousand  men  for  wisdom,  virtue,  noble- 
ness of  mind,  and  all  other  respects  but  the  fortune 
of  his  dignity,  far  above  him.  Yet  some  would 
persuade  us  that  this  absurd  opinion  was  King  Da- 
vid's, because  in  the  51st  Psalm  he  cries  out  to 
God,  "  Against  thee  only  have  I  sinned  " ;  as  if 
David  had  imagined,  that  to  murder  Uriah  and 
adulterate  his  wife  had  been  no  sin  against  his 
neighbor,  whenas  that  law  of  Moses  was  to  the 

O  ' 

king  expressly,  (Deut.  xvii.,)  not  to  think  so  high- 


KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES.  177 

ly  of  himself  above  his  brethren.  David,  there- 
fore, by  those  words,  could  mean  no  other,  than 
either  that  the  depth  of  his  guiltiness  was  known 
to  God  only,  or  to  so  few  as  had  not  the  will  or 
power  to  question  him,  or  that  the  sin  against  God 
was  greater  beyond  compare  than  against  Uriah. 
Whatever  his  meaning  were,  any  wise  man  will 
see,  that  the  pathetical  words  of  a  psalm  can  be 
no  certain  decision  to  a  point  that  hath  abun- 
dantly more  certain  rules  to  go  by. 

How  much  more  rationally  spoke  the  heathen 
king  Demophoon,  in  a  tragedy  of  Euripides,  than 
these  interpreters  would  put  upon  King  David !  "  I 
rule  not  my  people  by  tyranny,  as  if  they  were  bar- 
barians ;  but  am  myself  liable,  if  I  do  unjustly,  to 
suffer  justly."  Not  unlike  was  the  speech  of  Tra- 
jan, the  worthy  emperor,  to  one  whom  he  made 
general  of  his  prsetorian  forces :  "  Take  this  drawn 
sword,"  saith  he,  "  to  use  for  me  if  I  reign  well ; 
if  not,  to  use  against  me."  Thus  Dion  relates. 
And  not  Trajan  only,  but  Theodosius,  the  youn- 
ger, a  Christian  emperor,  and  one  of  the  best, 
caused  it  to  be  enacted,  as  a  rule  undeniable  and 
fit  to  be  acknowledged  by  all  kings  and  emperors, 
that  a  prince  is  bound  to  the  laws  ;  that  on  the  au- 
thority of  law  the  authority  of  a  prince  depends, 
and  to  the  laws  ought  to  submit.  Which  edict  of 
his  remains  yet  unrepealed  in  the  Code  of  Justin- 
ian, (1.  I.  tit.  24,)  as  a  sacred  constitution  to  all 
the  succeeding  emperors.  How  can  any  king  in 
8*  L 


178  FROM  THE   TENURE   OF 

Europe  maintain  and  write  himself  accountable  to 
none  but  God,  when  emperors  in  their  own  impe- 
rial statutes  have  written  and  decreed  themselves 
accountable  to  law  ?  And  indeed,  where  such  ac- 
count is  not  feared,  he  that  bids  a  man  reign  over 
him  above  law,  may  bid  as  well  a  savage  beast. 

POWER  OF  CHANGE  RESIDES  WITH  THE  PEOPLE. 

SINCE  the  king  or  magistrate  holds  his  authority 
of  the  people,  both  originally  and  naturally  for 
their  good,  in  the  first  place,  and  not  his  own,  then 
may  the  people,  as  oft  as  they  shall  judge  it  for  the 
best,  either  choose  him  or  reject  him,  retain  him 
or  depose  him,  though  no  tyrant,  merely  by  the 
liberty  and  right  of  freeborn  men  to  be  governed 
as  seems  to  them  best.  This,  though  it  cannot  but 
stand  with  plain  reason,  shall  be  made  good  also  by 
Scripture :  (Deut.  xvii.  14 :)  "  When  thou  art 
come  into  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth 
thee,  and  shalt  say,  I  will  set  a  king  over  me,  like 
as  all  the  nations  about  me."  These  words  con- 
firm us  that  the  right  of  choosing,  yea  of  changing 
their  own  government,  is  by  the  grant  of  God 
himself  in  the  people.  And  therefore  when  they 
desired  a  king,  though  then  under  another  form  of 
government,  and  though  their  changing  displeased 
him,  yet  he  that  was  himself  their  king,  and  re- 
jected by  them,  would  not  be  a  hinderance  to  what 
they  intended,  further  than  by  persuasion,  but  that 


KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES.  179 

they  might  do  therein  as  they  saw  good,  (1  Sam. 
viii.,)  only  he  reserved  to  himself  the  nomination 
of  who  should  reign  over  them.  Neither  did  that 
exempt  the  king,  as  if  he  were  to  God  only  account- 
able, though  by  his  especial  command  anointed. 
Therefore  "  David  first  made  a  covenant  with  the 
elders  of  Israel,  and  so  was  by  them  anointed 
king."  (2  Sam.  v.  3  ;  1  Chron.  xi.)  And  Jehoi- 
ada  the  priest,  making  Jehoash  king,  made  a  cov- 
enant between  him  and  the  people.  (2  Kings,  xi. 
17.)  Therefore  when  Roboam,  at  his  coming  to 
the  crown,  rejected  those  conditions  which  the 
Israelites  brought  him,  hear  what  they  answer 
him :  "  What  portion  have  we  in  David,  or  in- 
heritance in  the  son  of  Jesse  ?  See  to  thine  own 
house,  David."  And  for  the  like  conditions  not 
performed,  all  Israel  before  that  time  deposed  Sam- 
uel ;  not  for  his  own  default,  but  for  the  misgov- 
ernment  of  his  sons. 


EIGHT  OF  TYRANNICIDE. 

WE  may  from  hence  with  more  ease  and  force 
of  argument  determine  what  a  tyrant  is,  and  what 
the  people  may  do  against  him.  A  tyrant,  whether 
by  wrong  or  by  right  coming  to  the  crown,  is  he 
who,  regarding  neither  law  nor  the  common  good, 
reigns  only  for  himself  and  his  faction :  thus  St. 
Basil,  among  others,  defines  him.  And  because 
his  power  is  great,  his  will  boundless  and  exor- 


180  FROM  THE   TENURE   OF 

bitant,  the  rulfilling  whereof  is  for  the  most  part 
accompanied  with  innumerable  wrongs  and  oppres- 
sions of  the  people,  murders,  massacres,  rapes, 
adulteries,  desolation,  and  subversion  of  cities  and 
whole  provinces  ;  look  how  great  a  good  and  hap- 
piness a  just  king  is,  so  great  a  mischief  is  a  tyrant ; 
as  he  the  public  father  of  his  country,  so  this  the 
common  enemy.  Against  whom  what  the  people 
lawfully  may  do,  as  against  a  common  pest  and 
destroyer  of  mankind,  I  suppose  no  man  of  clear 
judgment  need  go  further  to  be  guided  than  by 
the  very  principles  of  nature  in  him. 

But  because  it  is  the  vulgar  folly  of  men  to 
desert  their  own  reason,  and,  shutting  their  eyes, 
to  think  they  see  best  with  other  men's,  I  shall 
show,  by  such  examples  as  ought  to  have  most 
weight  with  us,  what  hath  been  done  in  this  case 
heretofore.  The  Greeks  and  Romans,  as  their 
prime  authors  witness,  held  it  not  only  lawful,  but 
a  glorious  and  heroic  deed,  rewarded  publicly  with 
statues  and  garlands,  to  kill  an  infamous  tyrant  at 
any  time  without  trial ;  and  but  reason,  that  he 
who  trod  down  all  law  should  not  be  vouchsafed 
the  benefit  of  law.  Insomuch  that  Seneca,  the 
tragedian,  brings  in  Hercules,  the  grand  suppressor 
of  tyrants,  thus  speaking :  — 

"  Victima  baud  ulla  amplior 
Potest,  magisque  opima  mactari  Jovi 
Quam  rex  iniquus." 

"  There  can  be  slain 
No  sacrifice  to  God  more  acceptable 
Than  an  unjust  and  wicked  king." 


KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES.  181 

But  of  these  I  name  no  more,  lest  it  be  objected 
they  were  heathen ;  and  come  to  produce  another 
sort  of  men,  that  had  the  knowledge  of  true  re- 
ligion. Among  the  Jews  this  custom  of  tyrant- 
killing  was  not  unusual.  First,  Ehud,  a  man  whom 
God  had  raised  to  deliver  Israel  from  Eglon,  king 
of  Moab,  who  had  conquered  and  ruled  over  them 
eighteen  years,  being  sent  to  him  as  an  ambassador 
with  a  present,  slew  him  in  his  own  house.  But 
he  was  a  foreign  prince,  an  enemy,  and  Ehud: 
besides  had  special  warrant  from  God.  To  the 
first  I  answer,  it  imports  not  whether  foreign  or 
native :  for  no  prince  so  native  but  professes  to 
hold  by  law ;  which,  when  he  himself  overturns,, 
breaking  all  the  covenants  and  oaths  that  gave 
title  to  his  dignity,  and  were  the  bond  and  alliance 
between  him  and  his  people,  what  differs  he  from 
an  outlandish  king,  or  from  an  enemy  ?  .  .  .  . 

There  is  nothing  that  so  actually  makes  a  king 
of  England,  as  rightful  possession  and  supremacy 
in  all  causes  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical :  and  noth- 
ing that  so  actually  makes  a  subject  of  England, 
as  those  two  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy, 
observed  without  equivocating,  or  any  mental  res- 
ervation. Out  of  doubt  then,  when  the  kino;  shall 

7  o 

command  things  already  constituted  in  church  or 
state,  obedience  is  the  true  essence  of  a  subject, 
either  to  do,  if  it  be  lawful,  or  if  he  hold  the  thing 
unlawful,  to  submit  to  that  penalty  which  the  law 
imposes,  so  long  as  he  intends  to  remain  a  subject. 


182  FROM  THE   TENURE   OF 

Therefore  when  the  people,  or  any  part  of  them, 
shall  rise  against  the  king  and  his  authority,  ex- 
ecuting the  law  in  anything  established,  civil  or 
ecclesiastical,  I  do  not  say  it  is  rebellion,  if  the 
thing  commanded  though  established  be  unlawful, 
and  that  they  sought  first  all  due  means  of  redress ; 
(and  no  man  is  further  bound  to  law ;)  but  I  say 
it  is  an  absolute  renouncing  both  of  supremacy  and 
allegiance,  which,  in  one  word,  is  an  actual  and 
total  deposing  of  the  king,  and  the  setting  up  of 
another  supreme  authority  over  them 

If  then,  their  oaths  of  subjection  broken,  new 
supremacy  obeyed,  new  oaths  and  covenant  taken, 
notwithstanding  frivolous  evasions,  have  in  plain 
terms  unkinged  the  king,  much  more  than  hath 
their  seven  years'  war,  not  deposed  him  only,  but 
outlawed  him,  and  defied  him  as  an  alien,  a  rebel 
to  law,  and  enemy  to  the  state,  it  must  needs  be 
clear  to  any  man,  not  averse  from  reason,  that  hos- 
tility and  subjection  are  two  direct  and  positive 
contraries,  and  can  no  more  in  one  subject  stand 
together  in  respect  of  the  same  king,  than  one 
person  at  the  same  time  can  be  in  two  remote 
places.  Against  whom  therefore  the  subject  is  in 
act  of  hostility,  we  may  be  confident,  that  to  him 
he  is  in  no  subjection  :  and  in  whom  hostility  takes 
place  of  subjection,  for  they  can  by  no  means  con- 
sist together,  to  him  the  king  can  be  not  only  no 
king,  but  an  enemy. 

So  that  from  hence  we  shall  not  need  dispute, 


KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES.  183 

whether  they  have  deposed  him,  or  what  they  have 
defaulted  towards  him  as  no  king,  but  show  mani- 
festly how  much  they  have  done  towards  the  kill- 
ing him.  Have  they  not  levied  all  these  wars 
against  him,  whether  offensive  or  defensive,  (for 
defence  in  war  equally  offends,  and  most  prudently 
beforehand,)  and  given  commission  to  slay,  where 
they  knew  his  person  could  not  be  exempt  from 
danger?  And  if  chance  or  flight  had  not  saved 
him,  how  often  had  they  killed  him,  directing  their 
artillery,  without  blame  or  prohibition,  to  the  very 
place  where  they  saw  him  stand  ?  Have  they  not 
sequestered  him,  judged  or  unjudged,  and  con- 
verted his  revenue  to  other  uses,  detaining  from 

7  o 

him,  as  a  grand  delinquent,  all  means  of  livelihood, 
so  that  for  them  long  since  he  might  have  perished, 
or  have  starved  ?  Have  they  not  hunted  and  pur- 
sued him  round  about  the  kingdom  with  sword  and 
fire  ?  Have  they  not  formerly  denied  to  treat  with 
him,  and  their  now  recanting  ministers  preached 
against  him,  as  a  reprobate  incurable,  an  enemy  to 
God  and  his  Church,  marked  for  destruction,  and 
therefore  not  to  be  treated  with  ?  Have  they  not 
besieged  him,  and  to  their  power  forbid  him  water 
and  fire,  save  what  they  shot  against  him  to  the 
hazard  of  his  life  ? 


184  FROM  THE   TENURE   OF 

EIGHTS  AND  POWERS  OF  A  FREE  NATION. 

BUT  God,  as  we  have  cause  to  trust,  will  put 
other  thoughts  into  the  people,  and  turn  them  from 
giving  ear  or  heed  to  these  mercenary  noisemakers, 
of  whose  fury  and  false  prophecies  we  have  enough 
experience ;  and  from  the  murmurs  of  new  discord 
will  incline  them  to  hearken  rather  with  erected 
minds  to  the  voice  of  our  supreme  magistracy,  call- 
ing us  to  liberty,  and  the  flourishing  deeds  of  a 
reformed  commonwealth ;  with  this  hope,  that  as 
God  was  heretofore  angry  with  the  Jews  who 
rejected  him  and  his  form  of  government  to  choose 
a  king,  so  that  he  will  bless  us,  and  be  propitious 
to  us,  who  reject  a  king  to  make  him  only  our 
leader,  and  supreme  governor,  in  the  conformity, 
as  near  as  may  be,  of  his  own  ancient  government ; 
if  we  have  at  least  but  so  much  worth  in  us  to 
entertain  the  sense  of  our  future  happiness,  and 
the  courage  to  receive  what  God  vouchsafes  us ; 
wherein  we  have  the  honor  to  precede  other  na- 
tions, who  are  now  laboring  to  be  our  followers. 

For  as  to  this  question  in  hand,  what  the  people 
by  their  just  right  may  do  in  change  of  government, 
or  of  governor,  we  see  it  cleared  sufficiently  besides 
other  ample  authority  even  from  the  mouths  of 
princes  themselves.  And  surely  they  that  shall 
boast,  as  we  do,  to  be  a  free  nation,  and  not  have 
in  themselves  the  power  to  remove  or  abolish  any 
governor  supreme,  or  subordinate,  with  the  gov- 


KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES.  185 

eminent  itself  upon  urgent  causes,  may  please  their 
fancy  with  a  ridiculous  and  painted  freedom,  fit  to 
cozen  babies;  but  we  are  indeed  under  tyranny 
and  servitude,  as  wanting  that  power,  which  is  the 
root  and  source  of  all  liberty,  to  dispose  and  econ- 
omize in  the  land  which  God  hath  given  them,  as 
masters  of  family  in  their  own  house  and  free  in- 
heritance. Without  which  natural  and  essential 
power  of  a  free  nation,  though  bearing  high  their 
heads,  they  can  in  due  esteem  be  thought  no  better 
than  slaves  and  vassals  born,  in  the  tenure  and 
occupation  of  another  inheriting  lord ;  whose  gov- 
ernment, though  not  illegal,  or  intolerable,  hangs 
over  them  as  a  lordly  scourge,  not  as  a  free  govern- 
ment ;  and  therefore  to  be  abrogated. 

How  much  more  justly  then  may  they  fling  off 
tyranny,  or  tyrants ;  who  being  once  deposed  can 
be  no  more  than  private  men,  as  subject  to  the 
reach  of  justice  and  arraignment  as  any  other 
transgressors  ?  And  certainly  if  men,  not  to  speak 
of  heathen,  both  wise  and  religious,  have  done  jus- 
tice upon  tyrants  what  way  they  could  soonest, 
how  much  more  mild  and  humane  then  is  it,  to 
give  them  fair  and  open  trial ;  to  teach  lawless 
kings,  and  all  who  so  much  adore  them,  that  not 
mortal  man,  or  his  imperious  will,  but  justice,  is 
the  only  true  sovereign  and  supreme  majesty  upon 
earth?  Let  men  cease  therefore,  out  of  faction 
and  hypocrisy,  to  make  outcries  and  horrid  things 
of  things  so  just  and  honorable.  Though  perhaps 


186  FROM  THE   TENURE   OF 

till  now,  no  Protestant  state  or  kingdom  can  be 
alleged  to  have  openly  put  to  death  their  king, 
which  lately  some  have  written,  and  imputed  to 
their  great  glory;  much  mistaking  the  matter. 
It  is  not,  neither  ought  to  be,  the  glory  of  a  Prot- 
estant state  never  to  have  put  their  king  to  death ; 
it  is  the  glory  of  a  Protestant  king  never  to  have 
deserved  death.  And  if  the  Parliament  and  mili- 
tary council  do  what  they  do  without  precedent,  if 
it  appear  their  duty,  it  argues  the  more  wisdom, 
virtue,  and  magnanimity,  that  they  know  them- 
selves able  to  be  a  precedent  to  others ;  who  per- 
haps, in  nature  ages,  if  they  prove  not  too  degenerate, 
will  look  up  with  honor,  and  aspire  towards  these 
exemplary  and  matchless  deeds  of  their  ancestors, 
as  to  the  highest  top  of  their  civil  glory  and  emula- 
tion ;  which  heretofore,  in  the  pursuance  of  fame 
and  foreign  dominion,  spent  itself  vaingloriously 
abroad;  but  henceforth  may  learn  a  better  forti- 
tude, to  dare  execute  highest  justice  on  them  that 
shall  by  force  of  arms  endeavor  the  oppressing  and 
bereaving  of  religion  and  their  liberty  at  home. 
That  no 'unbridled  potentate  or  tyrant,  but  to  his 
sorrow,  for  the  future  may  presume  such  high  and 
irresponsible  license  over  mankind,  to  havoc  and 
turn  upside  down  whole  kingdoms  of  men,  as 
though  they  were  no  more  in  respect  of  his  per- 
verse will  than  a  nation  of  pismires 

For  divines  if  we  observe  them  have  their  pos- 
tures, and  their  motions  no  less  expertly,  and  with 


KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES.  187 

no  less  variety,  than  they  that  practice  feats  in  the 
Artillery-ground.  Sometimes  they  seem  furiously 
to  march  on,  and  presently  march  counter ;  by  and 
by  they  stand,  and  then  retreat ;  or,  if  need  be,  can 
face  about,  or  wheel  in  a  whole  body,  with  that 
cunning  and  dexterity  as  is  almost  unperceivable, 
to  wind  themselves  by  shifting  ground  into  places 
of  more  advantage.  And  providence  only  must 
be  the  drum,  providence  the  word  of  command, 
that  calls  them  from  above,  but  always  to  some 
larger  benefice,  or  acts  them  into  such  or  such 
figures  and  promotions.  At  their  turns  and  doub- 
lings no  men  readier,  to  the  right,  or  to  the  left ; 
for  it  is  their  turns  which  they  serve  chiefly ;  herein 
only  singular,  that  with  them  there  is  no  certain 
hand,  right  or  left,  but  as  their  own  commodity 
thinks  best  to  call  it.  But  if  there  come  a  truth 
to  be  defended,  which  to  them  and  their  interest 
of  this  world  seems  not  so  profitable,  straight  these 
nimble  motionists  can  find  not  even  legs  to  stand 
upon ;  and  are  no  more  of  use  to  reformation  thor- 
oughly performed,  and  not  superficially,  or  to  the 
advancement  of  truth,  (which  among  mortal  men 
is  always  in  her  progress,)  than  if  on  a  sudden  they 
were  struck  maim  and  crippled.  Which  the  better 
to  conceal,  or  the  more  to  countenance  by  a  general 
conformity  to  their  own  limping,  they  would  have 
Scripture,  they  would  have  reason  also,  made  to 
halt  with  them  for  company  ;  and  would  put  us  off 
with  impotent  conclusions,  lame  and  shorter  than 
the  premises. 


188  KINGS  AND  MAGISTRATES. 

In  this  posture  they  seem  to  stand  with  great 
zeal  and  confidence  on  the  wall  of  Sion ;  but  like 
Jebusites,  not  like  Israelites,  or  Levites :  blind  also 
as  well  as  lame,  they  discern  not  David  from  Adoni- 
bezec :  but  cry  him  up  for  the  lord's  anointed, 
whose  thumbs  and  great  toes  not  long  before  they 
had  cut  off  upon  their  pulpit  cushions.  Therefore 
he  who  is  our  only  King,  the  Root  of  David,  and 
whose  kingdom  is  eternal  righteousness,  with  all 
those  that  war  under  him,  whose  happiness  and 
final  hopes  are  laid  up  in  that  only  just  and  rightful 
kingdom,  (which  we  pray  incessantly  may  come 
soon,  and  in  so  praying  wish  hasty  ruin  and  destruc- 
tion to  all  tyrants,)  even  he  our  immortal  King, 
and  all  that  love  him,  must  of  necessity  have  in 
abomination  these  blind  and  lame  defenders  of 
Jerusalem,  as  the  soul  of  David  hated  them,  and 
forbid  them  entrance  into  God's  house,  and  his 
own.  But  as  to  those  before  them,  ....  being 
the  best  and  chief  of  Protestant  divines,  we  may 
follow  them  for  faithful  guides,  and  without  doubt- 
ing may  receive  them,  as  witnesses  abundant  of 
what  we  here  affirm  concerning  tyrants.  And  in- 
deed I  find  it  generally  the  clear  and  positive  de- 
termination of  them  all,  (not  prelatical,  or  of  this 
late  faction  sub-prelatical,)  who  have  written  on 
this  argument,  that  to  do  justice  on  a  lawless  king 
is  to  a  private  man  unlawful ;  to  an  inferior  magis- 
trate, lawful. 


FROM 

OBSERVATIONS    ON   THE  ARTICLES 
OF   PEACE,   &c. 

!E  accuses  first,  "  That  we  are  the  sub- 
verters  of  religion,  the  protectors  and 
inviters  not  only  of  all  false  ones,  but 
of  irreligion  and  atheism  " ;  an  accusa- 
tion that  no  man  living  could  more  unjustly  use 
than  our  accuser  himself;  and  which,  without  a 
strange  besottedness,  he  could  not  expect  but  to  be 
retorted  upon  his  own  head  ;  all  men  who  are  true 
Protestants,  of  which  number  he  gives  out  to  be 
one,  know  not  a  more  immediate  and  killing  sub- 
verter  of  all  true  religion  than  Antichrist,  whom 
they  generally  believe  to  be  the  pope  and  Church 
of  Rome  ;  he  therefore,  who  makes  peace  with  this 
grand  enemy  and  persecutor  of  the  true  Church, 
he  who  joins  with  him,  strengthens  him,  gives  him 
root  to  grow  up  and  spread  his  poison,  removing 
all  opposition  against  him,  granting  him  schools, 
abbeys,  and  revenues,  garrisons,  towns,  fortresses, 
as  in  so  many  of  those  articles  may  be  seen,  he  of 

*  James,  Earl  of  Ormoud,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 


190  FROM  OBSERVATIONS  ON 

all  Protestants  may  be  called  most  justly  the  sub- 
verter  of  true  religion,  the  protector  and  inviter  of 
irreligion  and  atheism,  whether  it  be  Ormond  or 
his  master.  And  if  it  can  be  no  way  proved  that 
the  Parliament  hath  countenanced  Popery  or  Pa- 
pists, but  have  everywhere  broken  their  temporal 
power,  thrown  down  their  public  superstitions,  and 
confined  them  to  the  bare  enjoyment  of  that  which 
is  not  in  our  reach,  their  consciences ;  if  they  have 
encouraged  all  true  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  that 
is  to  say,  afforded  them  favor  and  protection  in  all 
places  where  they  preached,  and  although  they 
think  not  money  or  stipend  to  be  the  best  encour- 
agement of  a  true  pastor,  yet  therein  also  have  not 
been  wanting  nor  intend  to  be,  they  doubt  not  then 
to  affirm  themselves,  not  the  subverters,  but  the 
maintainers  and  defenders,  of  true  religion ;  which 
of  itself  and  by  consequence  is  the  surest  and  the 
strongest  subversion,  not  only  of  all  false  ones,  but 
of  irreligion  and  atheism.  For  "  the  weapons  of 
that  warfare,"  as  the  apostle  testifies,  who  best 
knew,  "  are  not  carnal,  but  mighty  through  God 
to  the  pulling  down  of  strongholds,  and  all  reason- 
ings, and  every  high  thing  exalted  against  the 
knowledge  of  God,  surprising  every  thought  unto 
the  obedience  of  Christ,  and  easily  revenging  all 
disobedience."  2  Cor.  x.  What  minister  or  clergy- 
man, that  either  understood  his  high  calling,  or 
sought  not  to  erect  a  secular  and  carnal  tyranny 
over  spiritual  things,  would  neglect  this  ample 


THE  ARTICLES   OF  PEACE.  191 

and  sublime  power  conferred  upon  him,  and  come 
a-begging  to  the  weak  hand  of  magistracy  for  that 
kind  of  aid  which  the  magistrate  hath  no  commis- 
sion to  afford  him,  and  in  the  way  he  seeks  it 
hath  been  always  found  helpless  and  unprofitable. 
Neither  is  it  unknown,  or  by  wisest  men  unob- 
served, that  the  Church  began  then  most  appar- 
ently, to  degenerate,  and  go  to  ruin,  when  she 
borrowed  of  the  civil  power  more  than  fair  encour- 
agement and  protection,  more  than  which  Christ 
himself  and  his  apostles  never  required.  To  say, 
therefore,  that  we  protect  and  invite  all  false  re- 
ligions, with  irreligion  also  and  atheism,  because  we 
lend  not,  or  rather  misapply  not,  the  temporal  power 
to  help  out,  though  in  vain,  the  sloth,  the  spleen, 
the  insufficiency  of  churchmen,  in  the  execution  of 
spiritual  discipline  over  those  within  their  charge, 
or  those  without,  is  an  imputation  that  may  be  laid 
as  well  upon  the  best  regulated  states  and  govern- 
ments through  the  world ;  who  have  been  so 
prudent  as  never  to  employ  the  civil  sword  further 
than  the  edge  of  it  could  reach,  that  is,  to  civil 
offences  only ;  proving  always  against  objects  that 
were  spiritual  a  ridiculous  weapon.  Our  protec- 
tion therefore  to  men  in  civil  matters  unoffensive 
we  cannot  deny;  their  consciences  we  leave,  as 
not  within  our  cognizance,  to  the  proper  cure  of 
instruction,  praying  for  them.  Nevertheless,  if 
any  be  found  among  us  declared  atheists,  malicious 
enemies  of  God,  and  of  Christ ;  the  Parliament,  I 


192      FROM  THE  ARTICLES  OF  PEACE. 

think,  professes  not  to  tolerate  such,  but  with  all 
befitting  endeavors  to  suppress  them.  Otherways 
to  protect  none  that  in  a  larger  sense  may  be  taxed 
of  irreligion  and  atheism,  may  perhaps  be  the 
ready  way  to  exclude  none  sooner  out  of  protec- 
tion, than  those  themselves  that  most  accuse  it  to 
be  so  general  to  others.  Lastly,  that  we  invite 
such  as  these,  or  encourage  them,  is  a  mere  slander 
without  proof. 


FROM 


EIKONOKLASTES. 

,UT  the  people,  exorbitant  and  exces- 
sive in  all  their  motions,  are  prone 
ofttimes  not  to  a  religious  only,  but 
to  a  civil  kind  of  idolatry,  in  idolizing 
their  kings:  though  never  more  mistaken  in  the 
object  of  their  worship ;  heretofore  being  wont  to 
repute  for  saints  those  faithful  and  courageous 
barons,  who  lost  their  lives  in  the  field,  making 
glorious  war  against  tyrants  for  the  common  lib- 
erty; as  Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl  of  Leicester, 
against  Henry  III. ;  Thomas  Plantagenet,  Earl  of 
Lancaster,  against  Edward  II.  But  now,  with  a 
besotted  and  degenerate  baseness  of  spirit,  except 
some  few  who  yet  retain  in  them  the  old  English 
fortitude  and  love  of  freedom,  and  have  testified  it 
by  their  matchless  deeds,  the  rest,  imbastardized 
from  the  ancient  nobleness  of  their  ancestors,  are 
ready  to  fall  flat,  and  give  adoration  to  the  image 
and  memory  of  this  man,  who  hath  offered  at  more 
cunning  fetches  to  undermine  our  liberties,  and  put 
tyranny  into  an  art,  than  any  British  king  before 


194  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

him.  Which  low  dejection  and  debasement  of 
mind  in  the  people,  I  must  confess,  I  cannot  will- 
ingly ascribe  to  the  natural  disposition  of  an  Eng- 
lishman, but  rather  to  two  other  causes ;  first,  to 
the  prelates  and  their  fellow-teachers,  though  of 
another  name  and  sect,  whose  pulpit-stuff,  both 
first  and  last,  hath  been  the  doctrine  and  perpetual 
infusion  of  servility  and  wretchedness  to  all  their 
hearers,  and  whose  lives,  the  type  of  worldliness 
and  hypocrisy,  without  the  least  true  pattern  of 
virtue,  righteousness,  or  self-denial  in  their  whole 
practice.  I  attribute  it,  next,  to  the  factious  in- 
clination of  most  men,  divided  from  the  public  by 
several  ends  and  humors  of  their  own 

I  NEVER  knew  that  time  in  England,  when  men 
of  truest  religion  were  not  counted  sectaries :  but 
wisdom  now,  valor,  justice,  constancy,  prudence 
united  and  embodied  to  defend  religion  and  our 
liberties,  both  by  word  and  deed,  against  tyranny, 
is  counted  schism  and  faction. 

Thus  in  a  graceless  age  things  of  highest  praise 
and  imitation  under  a  right  name,  to  make  them 
infamous  and  hateful  to  the  people,  are  mis- 
called. Certainly,  if  ignorance  and  perverseness 
will  needs  be  national  and  universal,  then  they 
who  adhere  to  wisdom  and  to  truth,  are  not  there- 
fore to  be  blamed,  for  being  so  few  as  to  seem  a 
sect  or  faction.  But  in  my  opinion  it  goes  not  ill 
with  that  people  where  these  virtues  grow  so  nu- 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  195 

merous  and  well  joined  together,  as  to  resist  and 
make  head  against  the  rage  and  torrent  of  that 
boisterous  folly  and  superstition,  that  possesses  and 
hurries  on  the  vulgar  sort.  This  therefore  we  may 
conclude  to  be  a  high  honor  done  us  from  God, 
and  a  special  mark  of  his  favor,  whom  he  hath 
selected  as  the  sole  remainder,  after  all  these 
changes  and  commotions,  to  stand  upright  and 
steadfast  in  his  cause ;  dignified  with  the  defence 
of  truth  -^nd  public  liberty ;  while  others,  who 
aspired  to  "V)e  the  top  of  zealots,  and  had  almost 
brought  religion  to  a  kind  of  trading  monopoly, 
have  not  only  by  their  late  silence  and  neutrality 
belied  their  profession,  but  foundered  themselves 
and  their  consciences,  to  comply  with  enemies  in 
that  wicked  cause  and  interest,  which  they  have 
too  often  cursed  in  others,  to  prosper  now  in  the 
same  themselves 

"  He  hoped  by  his  freedom  and  their  moderation 
to  prevent  misunderstandings."  '•  And  wherefore 
not  by  their  freedom  and  his  moderation  ?  But 
freedom  he  thought  too  high  a  word  for  them,  and 
moderation  too  mean  a  word  for  himself:  this  was 
not  the  way  to  prevent  misunderstandings.  He 
still  "  feared  passion  and  prejudice  in  other  men  "  ; 
not  in  himself:  "and  doubted  not  by  the  weight 
of  his"  own  "  reason,  to  counterpoise  any  faction  "; 

*  This  and  quotations  following  are  from  the  Eikon  Basilikfc, 
which  claimed  to  have  been  written  by  Charles  I. 


196  FR  OM  EIKONOKLA  S  TES. 

it  being  so  easy  for  him,  and  so  frequent,  to  call 
his  obstinacy  reason,  and  other  men's  reason,  fac- 
tion. We  in  the  mean  while  must  believe  that 
wisdom  and  all  reason  came  to  him  by  title  with 
his  crown ;  passion,  prejudice,  and  faction  came  to 
others  by  being  subjects. 

"  He  was  sorry  to  hear,  with  what  popular  heat 
elections  were  carried  in  many  places."  Sorry 
rather,  that  court-letters  and  intimations  prevailed 
no  more,  to  divert  or  to  deter  the  people  from  their 
free  election  of  those  men  whom  they  thought  best 
affected  to  religion  and  their  country's  liberty,  both 
at  that  time  in  danger  to  be  lost.  And  such  men 
they  were,  as  by  the  kingdom  were  sent  to  advise 
him,  not  sent  to  be  cavilled  at,  because  elected,  or 
to  be  entertained  by  him  with  an  undervalue  and 
misprision  of  their  temper,  judgment,  or  aifection. 
In  vain  was  a  Parliament  thought  fittest  by  the 
known  laws  of  our  nation,  to  advise  and  regulate 
unruly  kings,  if  they,  instead  of  hearkening  to 
advice,  should  be  permitted  to  turn  it  off,  and  re- 
fuse it  by  vilifying  and  traducing  their  advisers,  or 
by  accusing  of  a  popular  heat  those  that  lawfully 
elected  them 

AND  this  is  the  substance  of  his  first  section,  till 
we  come  to  the  devout  of  it,  modelled  into  the 
form  of  a  private  psalter.  Which  they  who  so 
much  admire,  either  for  the  matter  or  the  manner, 
may  as  well  admire  the  archbishop's  late  breviary, 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  197 

and  many  other  as  good  manuals  and  handmaids 
of  devotion,  the  lip-work  of  every  prelatical  litur- 
gist,  clapped  together  and  quilted  out  of  Scripture 
phrase,  with  as  much  ease  and  as  little  need  of 
Christian  diligence  or  judgment,  as  belongs  to  the 
compiling  of  any  ordinary  and  salable  piece  of 
English  divinity,  that  the  shops  value.  But  he 
who,  from  such  a  kind  of  psalmistry,  or  any  other 
verbal  devotion,  without  the  pledge  and  earnest  of 
suitable  deeds,  can  be  persuaded  of  a  zeal  and 
true  righteousness  in  the  person,  hath  much  yet  to 
learn ;  and  knows  not  that  the  deepest  policy  of  a 
tyrant  hath  been  ever  to  counterfeit  religious. 
And  Aristotle,  in  his  Politics,  hath  mentioned  that 
special  craft  among  twelve  other  tyrannical  soph- 
isms. Neither  want  we  examples :  Andronicus 
Comnenus,  the  Byzantine  emperor,  though  a  most 
cruel  tyrant,  is  reported  by  Nicetas  to  have  been  a 
constant  reader  of  Saint  Paul's  Epistles ;  and  by 
continual  study  had  so  incorporated  the  phrase  and 
style  of  that  transcendent  apostle  into  all  his  fa- 
miliar letters,  that  the  imitation  seemed  to  vie  with 
the  original.  Yet  this  availed  not  to  deceive  the 
people  of  that  empire,  who,  notwithstanding  his 
saint's  vizard,  tore  him  to  pieces  for  his  tyranny. 

From  stories  of  this  nature  both  ancient  and 
modern  which  abound,  the  poets  also,  and  some 
English,  have  been  in  this  point  so  mindful  of 
decorum,  as  to  put  never  more  pious  words  in  the 
mouth  of  any  person,  than  of  a  tyrant.  I  shall 


198  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

not  instance  an  abstruse  author,  wherein  the  king 
might  be  less  conversant,  but  one  whom  we  well 
know  was  the  closest  companion  of  these  his  soli- 
tudes, William  Shakespeare ;  who  introduces  the 
person  of  Richard  the  Third,  speaking  in  as  high 
a  strain  of  piety  and  mortification  as  is  uttered  in 
any  passage  of  this  book,  and  sometimes  to  the 
same  sense  and  purpose  with  some  words  in  this 
place :  "  I  intended,"  saith  he,  "  not  only  to  oblige 
my  friends,  but  my  enemies."  The  like  saith 
Richard,  act  ii.  scene  1 : 

"  I  do  not  know  that  Englishman  alive, 
With  whom  my  soul  is  any  jot  at  odds, 
More  than  the  infant  that  is  born  to-night ; 
I  thank  my  God  for  my  humility." 

Other  stuff  of  this  sort  may  be  read  throughout  the 
whole  tragedy,  wherein  the  poet  used  not  much 
license  in  departing  from  the  truth  of  history, 
which  delivers  him  a  deep  dissembler,  not  of  his 
affections  only,  but  of  religion. 

In  praying,  therefore,  and  in  the  outward  work 
of  devotion,  this  king  we  see  hath  not  at  all  ex- 
ceeded the  worst  of  kings  before  him.  But  herein 
the  worst  of  kings,  professing  Christianism,  have 
by  far  exceeded  him.  They,  for  aught  we  know, 
have  still  prayed  their  own,  or  at  least  borrowed 
from  fit  authors.  But  this  king,  not  content  with 
that  which,  although  in  a  tiling  holy,  is  no  holy 
theft,  to  attribute  to  his  own  making  other  men's 
whole  prayers,  hath  as  it  were  unhallowed  and 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  199 

unchristened  the  very  duty  of  prayer  itself,  by 
borrowing  to  a  Christian  use  prayers  offered  to  a 
heathen  god.  Who  would  have  imagined  so  little 
fear  in  him  of  the  true  all-seeing  Deity,  so  little 
reverence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  whose  office  is  to 
dictate  and  present  our  Christian  prayers,  so  little 
care  of  truth  in  his  last  words,  or  honor  to  himself, 
or  to  his  friends,  or  sense  of  his  afflictions,  or  of 
that  sad  hour  which  was  upon  him,  as  immediately 
before  his  death  to  pop  into  the  hand  of  that  grave 
bishop  who  attended  him,  for  a  special  relique  of 
his  saintly  exercises,  a  prayer  stolen  word  for  word 
from  the  mouth  of  a  heathen  woman  praying  to  a 
heathen  god ;  and  that  in  no  serious  book,  but  the 
vain  amatorious  poem  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney's  Ar- 
cadia ;  a  book  in  that  kind  full  of  worth  and  wit, 
but  among  religious  thoughts  and  duties  not  worthy 
to  be  named ;  nor  to  be  read  at  any  time  without 
good  caution,  much  less  in  time  of  trouble  and 
affliction  to  be  a  Christian's  prayer-book  ?  .  .  .  . 

However,  to  the  benefit  of  others  much  more 
worth  the  gaining,  I  shall  proceed  in  my  assertion  ; 
that  if  only  but  to  taste  wittingly  of  meat  or  drink 
offered  to  an  idol  be  in  the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul 
judged  a  pollution,  much  more  must  be  his  sin  who 
takes  a  prayer  so  dedicated  into  his  mouth  and 
offers  it  to  God.  Yet  hardly  can  it  be  thought 
upon  (though  how  sad  a  thing !)  without  some 
kind  of  laughter  at  the  manner  and  solemn  trans- 
action of  so  gross  a  cozenage,  that  he,  who  had 


200  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

trampled  over  us  so  stately  and  so  tragically, 
should  leave  the  world  at  last  so  ridiculously  in  his 
exit,  as  to  bequeath  among  his  deifying  friends 
that  stood  about  him  such  a  precious  piece  of 
mockery  to  be  published  by  them,  as  must  needs 
cover  both  his  and  their  heads  with  shame,  if  they 
have  any  left.  Certainly,  they  that  will  may  now 
see  at  length  how  much  they  were  deceived  in  him, 
and  were  ever  like  to  be  hereafter,  who  cared  not, 
so  near  the  minute  of  his  death,  to  deceive  his  best 
and  dearest  friends  with  the  trumpery  of  such  a 
prayer,  not  more  secretly  than  shamefully  pur- 
loined; yet  given  them  as  the  royal  issue  of  his 
own  proper  zeal.  And  sure  it  was  the  hand  of  God 
to  let  them  fall,  and  be  taken  in  such  a  foolish 
trap,  as  hath  exposed  them  to  all  derision;  if  for 
nothing  else,  to  throw  contempt  and  disgrace  in 
the  sight  of  all  men  upon  this  his  idolized  book, 
and  the  whole  rosary  of  his  prayers ;  thereby  testi- 
fying how  little  he  accepted  them  from  those  who 
thought  no  better  of  the  living  God  than  of  a 
buzzard  idol,  fit  to  be  so  served  and  worshipped  in 
reversion,  with  the  polluted  orts  and  refuse  of 
Arcadias  and  romances,  without  being  able  to  dis- 
cern the  affront  rather  than  the  worship  of  such  an 
ethnic  prayer. 

But  leaving  what  might  justly  -be  offensive  to 
God,  it  was  a  trespass  also  more  than  usual  against 
human  right,  which  commands,  that  every  author 
should  have  the  property  of  his  own  work  reserved 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  201 

to  him  after  death,  as  well  as  living.  Many  princes 
have  been  rigorous  in  laying  taxes  on  their  subjects 
by  the  head;  but  of  any  king  heretofore  that 
made  a  levy  upon  their  wit,  and  seized  it  as  his 
own  legitimate,  I  have  not  whom  besides  to  in- 
stance. True  it  is,  I  looked  rather  to  have  found 
him  gleaning  out  of  books  written  purposely  to 
help  devotion.  And  if,  in  likelihood,  he  had  bor- 
rowed much  more  out  of  prayer-books  than  out  of 
pastorals,  then  are  these  painted  feathers,  that  set 
him  off  so  gay  among  the  people,  to  be  thought 
few  or  none  of  them  his  own.  But  if  from  his 
divines  he  have  borrowed  nothing,  nothing  out  of 
all  the  magazine,  and  the  rheum  of  their  mellifluous 
prayers  and  meditations,  let  them  who  now  mourn 
for  him  as  for  Thammuz,  them  who  howl  in  their 
pulpits,  and  by  their  howling  declare  themselves 
right  wolves,  remember  and  consider,  in  the  midst 
of  their  hideous  faces,  when  they  do  only  not  cut 
their  flesh  for  him  like  those  rueful  priests  whom 
Elijah  mocked,  that  he  who  was  once  their  Ahab, 
now  their  Josiah,  though  feigning  outwardly  to 
reverence  churchmen,  yet  here  hath  so  extremely 
set  at  naught  both  them  and  their  praying  faculty, 
that,  being  at  a  loss  himself  what  to  pray  in  cap- 
tivity, he  consulted  neither  with  the  liturgy,  nor 
with  the  directory,  but,  neglecting  the  huge  fardell 
of  all  their  honeycomb  devotions,  went  directly 
where  he  doubted  not  to  find  better  praying  to  his 
mind  with  Pamela,  in  the  Countess's  Arcadia. 
9* 


202  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

What  greater  argument  of  disgrace  and  ignominy 
could  have  been  thrown  with  cunning  upon  the 
whole  clergy,  than  that  the  king,  among  all  his 
priestery,  and  all  those  numberless  volumes  of  their 
theological  distillations,  not  meeting  with  one  man 
or  book  of  that  coat  that  could  befriend  him  with 
a  prayer  in  captivity,  was  forced  to  rob  Sir  Philip 
and  his  captive  shepherdess  of  their  heathen  ori- 
sons, to  supply  in  any  fashion  his  miserable  indi- 
gence, not  of  bread,  but  of  a  single  prayer  to  God  ? 
I  say  therefore  not  of  bread,  for  that  want  may 
befall  a  good  man,  and  yet  not  make  him  totally 
miserable :  but  he  who  wants  a  prayer  to  beseech 
God  in  his  necessity,  it  is  inexpressible  how  poor 
he  is ;  far  poorer  within  himself  than  all  his  ene- 
mies can  make  him.  And  the  unfitness,  the  in- 
decency of  that  pitiful  supply  which  he  sought, 
expresses  yet  further  the  deepness  of  his  poverty. 

Thus  much  be  said  in  general  to  his  prayers,  and 
in  special  to  that  Arcadian  prayer  used  in  his  cap- 
tivity ;  enough  to  undeceive  us  what  esteem  we 
are  to  set  upon  the  rest.  For  he  certainly,  whose 
mind  could  serve  him  to  seek  a  Christian  prayer 
out  of  a  pagan  legend,  and  assume  it  for  his  own, 
might  gather  up  the  rest  God  knows  from  whence  ; 
one  perhaps  out  of  the  French  Astrasa,  another  out 
of  the  Spanish  Diana ;  Amadis  and  Palmerin  could 
hardly  scape  him.  Such  a  person  we  may  be  sure 
had  it  not  in  him  to  make  a  prayer  of  his  own,  or 
at  least  would  excuse  himself  the  pains  and  cost 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  203 

of  his  invention,  so  long  as  such  sweet  rhapsodies 
of  heathenism  and  knight-errantry  could  yield  him 
prayers.  How  dishonorable  then,  and  how  un- 
worthy of  a  Christian  king,  were  these  ignoble 
shifts  to  seem  holy,  and  to  get  a  saintship  among 
the  ignorant  and  wretched  people ;  to  draw  them 
by  this  deception,  worse  than  all  his  former  injuries, 
to  go  a  whoring  after  him !  And  how  unhappy, 
how  forsook  of  grace,  and  unbeloved  of  God  that 
people  who  resolve  to  know  no  more  of  piety  or  of 
goodness,  than  to  account  him  their  chief  saint  and 
martyr,  whose  bankrupt  devotion  came  not  honestly 
by  his  very  prayers ;  but  having  sharked  them  from 
the  mouth  of  a  heathen  worshipper,  (detestable  to 
teach  him  prayers !)  sold  them  to  those  that  stood 
and  honored  him  next  to  the  Messiah,  as  his  own 
heavenly  compositions  in  adversity ;  for  hopes  no 
less  vain  and  presumptuous  (and  death  at  that  time 
so  imminent  upon  him)  than  by  these  goodly  rel- 
iques  to  be  held  a  saint  and  martyr  in  opinion  with 
the  cheated  people  ! 

And  thus  far  in  the  whole  chapter  we  have  seen 
and  considered,  and  it  cannot  but  be  clear  to  all 
men,  how,  and  for  what  ends,  what  concernments 
and  necessities,  the  late  king  was  no  way  induced, 
but  every  way  constrained,  to  call  this  last  Parlia- 
ment ;  yet  here  in  his  first  prayer  he  trembles  not 
to  avouch,  as  in  the  ears  of  God,  "  That  he  did  it 
with  an  upright  intention  to  his  glory,  and  his 
people's  good  "  :  of  which  dreadful  attestation,  how 


204  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

sincerely  meant,  God,  to  whom  it  was  avowed,  can 
only  judge  ;  and  he  hath  judged  already,  and  hath 
written  his  impartial  sentence  in  characters  legible 
to  all  Christendom ;  and  besides  hath  taught  us, 
that  there  be  some,  whom  he  hath  given  over  to 
delusion,  whose  very  mind  and  conscience  is  defiled ; 
of  whom  St.  Paul  to  Titus  makes  mention 

But  let  us  hear  what  that  sin  was  that  lay  so 
sore  upon  him,  and,  as  one  of  his  prayers  given 
to  Dr.  Juxon  testifies,  to  the  very  day  of  his 
death ;  it  was  his  signing  the  bill  of  Strafford's 
execution ;  a  man  whom  all  men  looked  upon  as 
one  of  the  boldest  and  most  impetuous  instruments 
that  the  King  had  to  advance  any  violent  or  ille- 
gal design 

No  marvel,  then,  if  being  as  deeply  crimmous  as 
the  Earl  himself,  it  stung  his  conscience  to  adjudge 
to  death  those  misdeeds,  whereof  himself  had  been 
the  chief  author:  no  marvel  though,  instead  of 
blaming  and  detesting  his  ambition,  his  evil  coun- 
sel, his  violence,  and  oppression  of  the  people,  he 
fall  to  praise  his  great  abilities ;  and  with  scholastic 
flourishes,  beneath  the  decency  of  a  king,  compares 
him  to  the  sun,  which  in  all  figurative  use  and  sig- 
nificance bears  allusion  to  a  king,  not  to  a  subject : 
no  marvel  though  he  knit  contradictions  as  close  as 
words  can  lie  together,  "  not  approving  in  his  judg- 
ment," and  yet  approving  in  his  subsequent  reason, 
all  that  Strafford  did,  as  "  driven  by  the  necessity 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  205 

of  times,  and  the  temper  of  that  people  "  ;  for  this 
excuses  all  his  misdemeanors.  Lastly,  no  marvel 
that  he  goes  on  building  many  fair  and  pious  con- 
clusions upon  false  and  wicked  premises,  which 
deceive  the  common  reader,  not  weh1  discerning 
the  antipathy  of  such  connections :  but  this  is  the 
marvel,  and  may  be  the  astonishment,  of  all  that 
have  a  conscience,  how  he  durst  in  the  sight  of 
God  (and  with  the  same  words  of  contrition  where- 
with David  repents  the  murdering  of  Uriah)  re- 
pent his  lawful  compliance  to  that  just  act  of  not 
saving  him,  whom  he  ought  to  have  delivered  up 
to  speedy  punishment,  though  himself  the  guiltier 
of  the  two. 

If  the  deed  were  so  sinful,  to  have  put  to  death 
so  great  a  malefactor,  it  would  have  taken  much 
doubtless  from  the  heaviness  of  his  sin,  to  have 
told  God  in  his  confession  how  he  labored,  what 
dark  plots  he  had  contrived,  into  what  a  league 
entered,  and  with  what  conspirators,  against  his 
Parliament  and  kingdoms,  to  have  rescued  from 
the  claim  of  justice  so  notable  and  so  dear  an 
instrument  of  tyranny ;  which  would  have  been  a 
story,  no  doubt,  as  pleasing  in  the  ears  of  heaven, 
as  all  these  equivocal  repentances.  For  it  was 
fear,  and  nothing  else,  which  made  him  feign  before 
both  the  scruple  and  the  satisfaction  of  his  con- 
science, that  is  to  say,  of  his  mind :  his  first  fear 
pretended  conscience,  that  he  might  be  borne  with 
to  refuse  signing ;  his  latter  fear,  being  more  ur- 


206  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

gent,  made  him  find  a  conscience  both  to  sign  and 
to  be  satisfied.  As  for  repentance,  it  came  not  on 
him  till  a  long  time  after ;  when  he  saw  "  he  could 
have  suffered  nothing  more,  though  he  had  denied 
that  bill."  For  how  could  he  understanding^ 

O  «/ 

repent  of  letting  that  be  treason,  which  the  Parlia- 
ment and  whole  nation  so  judged  ?  This  was  that 
which  repented  him,  to  have  given  up  to  just  pun- 
ishment so  stout  a  champion  of  his  designs,  who 
might  have  been  so  useful  to  him  in  his  following 
civil  broils.  It  was  a  worldly  repentance,  not  a 
conscientious ;  or  else  it  was  a  strange  tyranny, 
which  his  conscience  had  got  over  him,  to  vex  him 
like  an  evil  spirit  for  doing  one  act  of  justice,  and 
by  that  means  to  "  fortify  his  resolution "  from 
ever  doing  so  any  more.  That  mind  iQJJjj£>  needs 
be  irrecoverably  depraved,  which,  either  by  chance 
or  importunity,  tasting  but  once  of  one  just  deed, 
spatters  at  it,  and  abhors  the  relish  ever  after. 

To  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  woe  was  denounced 
by  our  Saviour,  for  straining  at  a  gnat  and  swallow- 
ing a  camel,  though  a  gnat  were  to  be  strained  at : 
but  to  a  conscience  with  whom  one  good  is  so  hard 
to  pass  down  as  to  endanger  almost  a  choking,  and 
bad  deeds  without  number,  though  as  big  and 
bulky  as  the  ruin  of  three  kingdoms,  go  down 
currently  without  straining,  certainly  a  far  greater 
woe  appertains.  If  his  conscience  were  come  to 
that  unnatural  dyscrasy,  as  to  digest  poison  and  to 
keck  at  wholesome  food,  it  was  not  for  the  Parlia- 


FROM  EIKQNOKLASTES.  207 

ment  or  any  of  his  kingdoms  to  feed  with  him  any 
longer.  Which  to  conceal  he  would  persuade  us, 
that  the  Parliament  also  in  their  conscience  escaped 
not  "  some  touches  of  remorse  "  for  putting  Straf- 
ford  to  death,  in  forbidding  it  by  an  after-act  to  be 
a  precedent  for  the  future.  But,  in  a  fairer  con- 
struction, that  act  implied  rather  a  desire  in  them 
to  pacify  the  king's  mind,  whom  they  perceived  by 
this  means  quite  alienated :  in  the  mean  while  not 
imagining  that  this  after-act  should  be  retorted  on 
them  to  tie  up  justice  for  the  time  to  come  upon 
like  occasion,  whether  this  were  made  a  precedent 
or  not,  no  more  than  the  want  of  such  a  precedent, 
if  it  had  been  wanting,  had  been  available  to  hin- 
der this. 

But  how  likely  is  it,  that  this  after-act  argued 
in  the  Parliament  their  least  repenting  for  the 
death  of  Strafford,  when  it  argued  so  little  in  the 
king  himself;  who,  notwithstanding  this  after-act, 
which  had  his  own  hand  and  concurrence,  if  not  his 
own  instigation,  within  the  same  year  accused  of 
high-treason  no  less  than  six  members  at  once  for 
the  same  pretended  crimes,  which  his  conscience 
would  not  yield  to  think  treasonable  in  the  earl? 
So  that  this  his  subtle  argument  to  fasten  a  repent- 
ing, and,  by  that  means,  a  guiltiness  of  Strafford's 
death  upon  the  Parliament,  concludes  upon  his 
own  head ;  and  shows  us  plainly,  that  either  noth- 
ing in  his  judgment  was  treason  against  the  com- 
monwealth, but  only  against  the  king's  person,  (a 


208  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

tyrannical  principle !)  or  that  his  conscience  was 
a  perverse  and  prevaricating  conscience,  to  scruple 
that  the  commonwealth  should  punish  for  treason- 
ous in  one  eminent  offender  that  which  he  himself 
sought  so  vehemently  to  have  punished  in  six  guilt- 
less persons.  If  this  were  "  that  touch  of  con- 
science, which  he  bore  with  greater  regret "  than 
for  any  sin  committed  in  his  life,  whether  it  were 
that  proditory  aid  sent  to  Rochelle  and  religion 
abroad,  or  that  prodigality  of  shedding  blood  at 
home,  to  a  million  of  his  subjects'  lives  not  valued 
in  comparison  to  one  Strafford ;  we  may  consider 
yet  at  last,  what  true  sense  and  feeling  could  be  in 
that  conscience,  and  what  fitness  to  be  the  master- 
conscience  of  three  kingdoms. 

But  the  reason  why  he  labors,  that  we  should 
take  notice  of  so  much  "  tenderness  and  regret  in 
his  soul  for  having  any  hand  in  Strafford's  death," 
is  worth  the  marking  ere  we  conclude :  "  he  hoped 
it  would  be  some  evidence  before  God  and  man  to 
all  posterity,  that  he  was  far  from  bearing  that  vast 
load  and  guilt  of  blood  "  laid  upon  him  by  others : 
which  hath  the  likeness  of  a  subtle  dissimulation  ; 
bewailing  the  blood  of  one  man,  his  commodious 
instrument,  put  to  death,  most  justly,  though  by 
him  unwillingly,  that  we  might  think  him  too  ten- 
der to  shed  willingly  the  blood  of  those  thousands 
whom  he  counted  rebels.  And  thus  by  dipping 
voluntarily  his  finger's  end,  yet  with  show  of  great 
remorse,  in  the  blood  of  Strafford,  whereof  all  men 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  209 

clear  him,  he  thinks  to  scape  that  sea  of  innocent 
blood,  wherein  his  own  guilt  inevitably  hath  plunged 
him  all  over.  And  we  may  well  perceive  to  what 
easy  satisfactions  and  purgations  he  had  inured  his 
secret  conscience,  who  thought  by  such  weak  poli- 
cies and  ostentations  as  these  to  gain  belief  and 
absolution  from  understanding  men 

That  the  king  was  so  emphatical  and  elaborate 
on  this  theme  against  tumults,  and  expressed  with 
such  a  vehemence  his  hatred  of  them,  will  redound 
less  perhaps  than  he  was  aware  to  the  commenda- 
tion of  his  government.  For,  besides  that  in  good 
governments  they  happen  seldomest,  and  rise  not 
without  cause,  if  they  prove  extreme  and  pernicious, 
they  were  never  counted  so  to  monarchy,  but  to 
monarchical  tyranny ;  and  extremes  one  with 
another  are  at  most  antipathy.  If  then  the  king 
so  extremely  stood  in  fear  of  tumults,  the  inference 
will  endanger  him  to  be  the  other  extreme 

The  bill  for  a  triennial  Parliament  was  but  the 
third  part  of  one  good  step  toward  that  which  in 
times  past  was  our  annual  right.  The  other  bill 
for  settling  this  Parliament  was  new  indeed,  but  at 
that  time  very  necessary ;  and,  in  the  king's  own 
words,  no  more  than  what  the  world  "  was  fully 
confirmed  he  might  in  justice,  reason,  honor,  and 
conscience  grant  them  "  ;  for  to  that  end  he  affirms 
to  have  done  it. 

But  whereas  he  attributes  the  passing  of  them 
to  his  own  act  of  grace  and  willingness,  (as  his 


210  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

manner  is  to  make  virtues  of  his  necessities,)  and 
giving  to  himself  all  the  praise,  heaps  ingratitude 
upon  the  Parliament,  a  little  memory  will  set  the 
clean  contrary  before  us ;  that  for  those  beneficial 
acts  we  owe  what  we  owe  to  the  Parliament,  but 
to  his  granting  them  neither  praise  nor  thanks. 
The  first  bill  granted  much  less  than  two  former 
statutes  yet  in  force  by  Edward  the  Third ;  that  a 
Parliament  should  be  called  every  year,  or  oftener, 
if  need  were  ;  nay,  from  a  far  ancienter  law-book, 
called  the  "  Mirror,"  it  is  affirmed  in  a  late  treatise 
called  "Rights  of  the  Kingdom,"  that  Parliaments 
by  our  old  laws  ought  twice  a  year  to  be  at  Lon- 
don. From  twice  in  one  year  to  once  in  three 
years,  it  may  be  soon  cast  up  how  great  a  loss  we 
fell  into  of  our  ancient  liberty  by  that  act,  which 
in  the  ignorant  and  slavish  minds  we  then  were, 
was  thought  a  great  purchase. 

Wisest  men  perhaps  were  contented  (for  the 
present,  at  least)  by  this  act  to  have  recovered 
Parliaments,  which  were  then  upon  the  brink  of 
danger  to  be  forever  lost.  And  this  is  that  which 

O 

the  king  preaches  here  for  a  special  token  of  his 
princely  favor,  to  have  abridged  and  overreached 
the  people  five  parts  in  six  what  their  due  was, 
both  by  ancient  statute  and  originally.  And  thus 
the  taking  from  us  all  but  a  triennial  remnant  of 
that  English  freedom  which  our  fathers  left  us 
double,  in  a  fair  annuity  enrolled,  is  set  out,  and 
sold  to  us  here  for  the  gracious  and  over-liberal 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  211 

giving  of  a  new  enfranchisement.  How  little,  may 
we  think,  did  he  ever  give  us,  who  in  the  bill  of 
his  pretended  givings  writes  down  imprimis  that 
benefit  or  privilege  once  in  three  years  given  us, 
which  by  so  giving  he  more  than  twice  every  year 
illegally  took  from  us :  such  givers  as  give  single 
to  take  away  sixfold,  be  to  our  enemies !  for  cer- 
tainly this  commonwealth,  if  the  statutes  of  our 
ancestors  be  worth  aught,  would  have  found  it  hard 
and  hazardous  to  thrive  under  the  damage  of  such 

a  guileful  liberality 

Our  forefathers  were  of  that  courage  and  severity 
of  zeal  to  justice  and  their  native  liberty,  against 
the  proud  contempt  and  misrule  of  their  kings, 
that  when  Richard  the  Second  departed  but  from 
a  committee  of  lords,  who  sat  preparing  matter  for 
the  Parliament  not  yet  assembled,  to  the  removal 
of  his  evil  counsellors,  they  first  vanquished  and 
put  to  flight  Robert  de  Vere,  his  chief  favorite ; 
and  then,  coming  up  to  London  with  a  huge  army, 
required  the  king,  then  withdrawn  for  fear,  but  no 
further  off  than  the  Tower,  to  come  to  Westmin- 
ster. Which  he  refusing,  they  told  him  flatly,  that 
unless  he  came  they  would  choose  another.  So 
high  a  crime  it  was  accounted  then  for  kings  to 

O  O 

absent  themselves,  not  from  a  Parliament,  which 
none  ever  durst,  but  from  any  meeting  of  his  peers 
and  counsellors,  which  did  but  tend  towards  a 
Parliament.  Much  less  would  they  have  suffered, 
that  a  king,  for  such  trivial  and  various  pretences, 


212  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

one  while  for  fear  of  tumults,  another  while  "  for 
shame  to  see  them,"  should  leave  his  regal  station, 
and  the  whole  kingdom  bleeding  to  death  of  those 
wounds,  which  his  own  unskilful  and  perverse  gov- 
ernment had  inflicted 

It  being  therefore  most  unlike  a  law,  to  ordain  a 
remedy  so  slender  and  unlawlike,  to  be  the  utmost 
means  of  all  public  safety  or  prevention,  as  advice 
is,  which  may  at  any  time  be  rejected  by  the  sole 
judgment  of  one  man,  the  king,  and  so  unlike  the 
law  of  England,  which  lawyers  say  is  the  quin- 
tessence of  reason  and  mature  wisdom  ;  we  may 
conclude,  that  the  king's  negative  voice  was  never 
any  law,  but  an  absurd  and  reasonless  custom, 
begotten  and  grown  up  either  from  the  flattery  of 
basest  times  or  the  usurpation  of  immoderate 
princes.  Thus  much  to  the  law  of  it,  by  a  better 
evidence  than  rolls  and  records,  —  reason.  But  is 
it  possible  he  should  pretend  also  to  reason,  that 
the  judgment  of  one  man,  not  as  a  wise  or  good 
man,  but  as  a  king,  and  ofttimes  a  wilful,  proud, 
and  wicked  king,  should  outweigh  the  prudence 
and  all  the  virtue  of  an  elected  Parliament?  What 
an  abusive  thing  were  it  then  to  summon  Parlia- 

O 

ments,  that  by  the  major  part  of  voices  greatest 
matters  may  be  there  debated  and  resolved,  when- 
as  one  single  voice  after  that  shall  dash  all  their 

O 

resolutions  ? 

He  attempts  to  give  a  reason  why  it  should: 
"  Because  the  whole  Parliaments  represent  not  him 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  213 

in  any  kind."  But  mark  how  little  he  advances ; 
for  if  the  Parliament  represent  the  whole  kingdom, 
as  is  sure  enough  they  do,  then  doth  the  king 
represent  only  himself;  and  if  a  king  without  his 
kingdom  be  in  a  civil  sense  nothing,  then  without 
or  against  the  representative  of  his  whole  kingdom, 
he  himself  represents  nothing ;  and  by  consequence 
his  judgment  and  his  negative  is  as  good  as  nothing. 
And  though  we  should  allow  him  to  be  something, 
yet  not  equal  or  comparable  to  the  whole  kingdom, 
and  so  neither  to  them  who  represent  it;  much 
less  that  one  syllable  of  his  breath  put  into  the 
scales  should  be  more  ponderous  than  the  joint 
voice  and  efficacy  of  a  whole  Parliament,  assembled 
by  election,  and  endued  with  the  plenipotence  of  a 
free  nation,  to  make  laws,  not  to  be  denied  laws ; 
and  with  no  more  but  "  no ! "  a  sleeveless  reason, 
in  the  most  pressing  times  of  danger  and  disturb- 
ance to  be  sent  home  frustrate  and  remediless. 

Yet  here  he  maintains,  "  to  be  no  further  bound 
to  agree  with  the  votes  of  both  houses,  than  he  sees 
them  to  agree  with  the  will  of  God,  with  his  just 
rights  as  a  king,  and  the  general  good  of  his  people." 
As  to  the  freedom  of  his  agreeing  or  not  agreeing, 
limited  with  due  bounds,  no  man  reprehends  it; 
this  is  the  question  here,  or  the  miracle  rather,  why 
his  only  not  agreeing  should  lay  a  negative  bar  and 
inhibition  upon  that  which  is  agreed  to  by  a  whole 
Parliament,  though  never  so  conducing  to  the  pub- 
lic good  or  safety  ?  To  know  the  will  of  God  bet- 


214  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

ter  than  his  whole  kingdom,  whence  should  he 
have  it  ?  Certainly  his  court-breeding  and  his  per- 
petual conversation  with  flatterers  was  but  a  bad 
school.  To  judge  of  his  own  rights  could  not 
belong  to  him,  who  had  no  right  by  law  in  any 
court  to  judge  of  so  much  as  felony  or  treason, 
being  held  a  party  in  both  these  cases,  much  more 
in  this ;  and  his  rights  however  should  give  place 
to  the  general  good,  for  which  end  all  his  rights 
were  given  him. 

Lastly,  to  suppose  a  clearer  insight  and  discern- 
ing of  the  general  good,  allotted  to  his  own  singular 
judgment,  than  to  the  Parliament  and  all  the 
people,  and  from  that  self-opinion  of  discerning,  to 
deny  them  that  good  which  they,  being  all  free- 
men, seek  earnestly  and  call  for,  is  an  arrogance, 
and  iniquity  beyond  imagination  rude  and  unrea- 
sonable ;  they  undoubtedly  having  most  authority 
to  judge  of  the  public  good,  who  for  that  purpose 
are  chosen  out  and  sent  by  the  people  to  advise 
him.  And  if  it  may  be  in  him  to  see  oft  "the 
major  part  of  them  not  in  the  right,"  had  it  not 
been  more  his  modesty,  to  have  doubted  their  see- 
ing him  more  often  in  the  wrong  ?  ....  In  all 
wise  nations  the  legislative  power,  and  the  judicial 
execution  of  that  power,  have  been  most  com- 
monly distinct,  and  in  several  hands ;  but  yet  the 
former  supreme,  the  other  subordinate.  If  then 
the  king  be  only  set  up  to  execute  the  law,  which 
is  indeed  the  highest  of  his  office,  he  ought  no 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  215 

more  to  make  or  forbid  the  making  of  any  law, 
agreed  upon  in  Parliament,  than  other  inferior 
judges,  who  are  Ms  deputies.  Neither  can  he 
more  reject  a  law  offered  him  by  the  Commons, 
than  he  can  new  make  a  law,  which  they  reject. 
And  yet  the  more  to  credit  and  uphold  his  cause,  he 
would  seem  to  have  philosophy  on  his  side  ;  strain- 
ing her  wise  dictates  to  unphilosophical  purposes. 
But  when  kings  come  so  low,  as  to  fawn  upon 
philosophy,  which  before  they  neither  valued  nor 
understood,  it  is  a  sign  that  fails  not,  they  are  then 
put  to  their  last  trump.  And  philosophy  as  well 
requites  them,  by  not  suffering  her  golden  sayings 
either  to  become  their  lips,  or  to  be  used  as  masks 
and  colors  of  injurious  and  violent  deeds.  So  that 
what  they  presume  to  borrow  from  her  sage  and 
virtuous  rules,  like  the  riddle  of  the  Sphinx  not 
understood,  breaks  the  neck  of  their  own  cause. 

But  now  again  to  politics:  "He  cannot  think 
the  majesty  of  the  crown  of  England  to  be  bound 
by  any  coronation  oath  in  a  blind  and  brutish  for- 
mality, to  consent  to  whatever  its  subjects  in  Par- 
liament shall  require."  What  tyrant  could  presume 
to  say  more,  when  he  meant  to  kick  down  all  law, 
government,  and  bond  of  oath  ?  But  why  he  so 
desires  to  absolve  himself  the  oath  of  his  corona- 
tion would  be  worth  the  knowing.  It  cannot  but 
be  yielded,  that  the  oath,  which  binds  him  to  the 
performance  of  his  trust,  ought  in  reason  to  contain 
the  sum  of  what  his  chief  trust  and  office  is.  But 


216  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

if  it  neither  do  enjoin,  nor  mention  to  him,  as  a 
part  of  his  duty,  the  making  nor  the  marring  of 
any  law,  or  scrap  of  law,  but  requires  only  his 
assent  to  those  laws  which  the  people  have  already 
chosen,  or  shall  choose ;  (for  so  both  the  Latin  of 
that  oath,  and  the  old  English ;  and  all  reason  ad- 
mits, that  the  people  should  not  lose  under  a  new 
king  what  freedom  they  had  before ;)  then  that 
negative  voice  so  contended  for,  to  deny  the  pass- 
ing of  any  law  which  the  Commons  choose,  is  both 
against  the  oath  of  his  coronation,  and  his  kingly 
office. 

And  if  the  king  may  deny  to  pass  what  the  Par- 
liament hath  chosen  to  be  a  law,  then  doth  the 
king  make  himself  superior  to  his  whole  kingdom  ; 
which  not  only  the  general  maxims  of  policy  gain- 
say, but  even  our  own  standing  laws,  as  hath  been 
cited  to  him  in  remonstrances  heretofore,  that 
"the  king  hath  two  superiors,  the  law,  and  his 
court  of  Parliament."  But  this  he  counts  to  be  a 
blind  and  brutish  formality,  whether  it  be  law,  or 
oath,  or  his  duty,  and  thinks  to  turn  it  off  with 
wholesome  words  and  phrases,  which  he  then  first 
learnt  of  the  honest  people,  when  they  were  so 
often  compelled  to  use  them  against  those  more 
truly  blind  and  brutish  formalities  thrust  upon  us 
by  his  own  command,  not  in  civil  matters  only,  but 
in  spiritual.  And  if  his  oath  to  perform  what  the 
people  require,  when  they  crown  him,  be  in  his 
esteem  a  brutish  formality,  then  doubtless  those 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  217 

other  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  taken 
absolute  on  our  part,  may  most  justly  appear  to  us 
in  all  respects  as  brutish  and  as  formal ;  and  so  by 
his  own  sentence  no  more  binding  to  us,  than  his 
oath  to  him 

Thus  much  of  what  he  suffered  by  Hotham,  and 
with  what  patience  ;  now  of  what  Hotham  suffered, 
as  he  judges,  for  opposing  him :  "  he  could  not  but 
observe  how  God,  not  long  after,  pleaded  and 
avenged  his  cause."  Most  men  are  too  apt,  and 
commonly  the  worst  of  men,  so  to  interpret,  and 
expound  the  judgments  of  God,  and  all  other  events 
of  Providence  or  chance,  as  makes  most  to  the 
justifying  of  their  own  cause,  though  never  so 
evil ;  and  attribute  all  to  the  particular  favor  of 
God  towards  them.  Thus  when  Saul  heard  that 
David  was  in  Keilah,  "  God,"  saith  he,  "  nath 
delivered  him  into  my  hands,  for  he  is  shut  in." 
But  how  far  that  king  was  deceived  in  his  thought 
that  God  was  favoring  to  his  cause,  that  story  un- 
folds ;  and  how  little  reason  this  king  had  to  impute 
the  death  of  Hotham  to  God's  avengement  of  his 
repulse  at  Hull,  may  easily  be  seen. 

For  while  Hotham  continued  faithful  to  his 
trust,  no  man  more  safe,  more  successful,  more  in 
reputation  than  he :  but  from  the  time  he  first 
sought  to  make  his  peace  with  the  king,  and  to 
betray  into  his  hands  that  town,  into  which  before 
he  had  denied  him  entrance,  nothing  prospered 
with  him.  Certainly  had  God  purposed  him  such 
10 


218  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

an  end  for  his  opposition  to  the  king,  he  would  not 
have  deferred  to  punish  him  till  then,  when  of  an 
enemy  he  was  changed  to  be  the  king's  friend,  nor 
have  made  his  repentance  and  amendment  the 
occasion  of  his  ruin.  How  much  more  likely  is  it, 
since  he  fell  into  the  act  of  disloyalty  to  his  charge, 
that  the  judgment  of  God  concurred  with  the  pun- 
ishment of  man,  and  justly  cut  him  off  for  revolting 
to  the  king ;  to  give  the  world  an  example,  that 
glorious  deeds  done  to  ambitious  ends  find  reward 
answerable,  not  to  their  outward  seeming,  but  to 
their  inward  ambition  !  In  the  mean  while,  what 
thanks  he  had  from  the  king  for  revolting  to  his 
cause,  and  what  good  opinion  for  dying  in  his  ser- 
vice, they  who  have  ventured  like  him,  or  intend, 
may  here  take  notice. 

He  proceeds  to  declare,  not  only  in  general 
wherefore  God's  judgment  was  upon  Hotham,  but 
undertakes  by  fancies  and  allusions  to  give  a  criti- 
cism upon  every  particular,  "that  his  head  was 
divided  from  his  body,  because  his  heart  was  divided 
from  the  king ;  two  heads  cut  off  in  one  family  for 
affronting  the  head  of  the  commonwealth  ;  the 
eldest  son  being  infected  with  the  sin  of  his  father, 
against  the  father  of  his  country."  These  petty 
glosses  and  conceits  on  the  high  and  secret  judg- 
ments of  God,  besides  the  boldness  of  unwarrant- 
able commenting,  are  so  weak  and  shallow,  and  so 
like  the  quibbles  of  a  court  sermon,  that  we  may 
safely  reckon  them  either  fetched  from  such  a  pat- 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  219 

tern,  or  that  the  hand  of  some  household  priest 
foisted  them  in ;  lest  the  world  should  forget  how 
much  he  was  a  disciple  of  those  cymbal  doctors. 
But  that  argument,  by  which  the  author  would 
commend  them  to  us,  discredits  them  the  more ; 
for  if  they  be  so  "  obvious  to  every  fancy,"  the 
more  likely  to  be  erroneous,  and  to  misconceive 
the  mind  of  those  high  secrecies,  whereof  they 
presume  to  determine.  For  God  judges  not  by 

human  fancy 

"  He  is  sorry  that  Hotham  felt  the  justice  of 
others,  and  fell  not  rather  into  the  hands  of  his 
mercy."  But  to  clear  that,  he  should  have  shown 
us  what  mercy  he  had  ever  used  to  such  as  fell  into 
his  hands  before,  rather  than  what  mercy  he  in- 
tended to  such  as  never  could  come  to  ask  it. 
Whatever  mercy  one  man  might  have  expected,  it 
is  too  well  known  the  whole  nation  found  none ; 
though  they  besought  it  often,  and  so  humbly; 
but  had  been  swallowed  up  in  blood  and  ruin,  to  set 
his  private  will  above  the  Parliament,  had  not  his 
strength  failed  him.  "  Yet  clemency  he  counts  a 
debt,  which  he  ought  to  pay  to  those  that  crave  it ; 
since  we  pay  not  anything  to  God  for  his  mercy 
but  prayers  and  praises."  By  this  reason  we  ought 
as  freely  to  pay  all  things  to  all  men ;  for  all  that 
we  receive  from  God,  what  do  we  pay  for,  more 
than  prayers  and  praises  ?  We  looked  for  the  dis- 
charge of  his  office,  the  payment  of  his  duty  to 
the  kingdom,  and  are  paid  court-payment,  with 


220  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

empty  sentences  that  have  the  sound  of  gravity, 
but  the  significance  of  nothing  pertinent 

"  But  he  had  a  soul  invincible."  What  praise 
is  that  ?  The  stomach  of  a  child  is  ofttimes  invin- 
cible to  all  correction.  The  unteachable  man  hath 
a  soul  to  all  reason  and  good  advice  invincible ; 
and  he  who  is  intractable,  he  whom  nothing  can 
persuade,  may  boast  himself  invincible ;  whenas  in 
some  things  to  be  overcome,  is  more  honest  and 
laudable  than  to  conquer. 

He  labors  to  have  it  thought,  "  that  his  fearing 
God  more  than  man  "  was  the  ground  of  his  suffer- 
ings ;  but  he  should  have  known  that  a  good  prin- 
ciple not  rightly  understood  may  prove  as  hurtful 
as  a  bad ;  and  his  fear  of  God  may  be  as  faulty  as 
a  blind  zeal.  He  pretended  to  fear  God  more  than 
the  Parliament,  who  never  urged  him  to  do  other- 
wise ;  he  should  also  have  feared  God  more  than 
he  did  his  courtiers,  and  the  bishops,  who  drew 
him  as  they  pleased  to  things  inconsistent  with  the 
fear  of  God.  Thus  boasted  Saul  to  have  "  per- 
formed the  commandment  of  God,"  and  stood  in 
it  against  Samuel ;  but  it  was  found  at  length,  that 
he  had  feared  the  people  more  than  God,  in  saving 
those  fat  oxen  for  the  worship  of  God,  which  were 
appointed  for  destruction.  Not  much  unlike,  if 
not  much  worse,  was  that  fact  of  his,  who,  for  fear 
to  displease  his  court  and  mongrel  clergy,  with  the 
dissolutest  of  the  people,  upheld  in  the  Church  of 
God,  while  his  power  lasted,  those  beasts  of  Ama- 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  221 

lee,  the  prelates,  against  the  advice  of  his  Parlia- 
ment and  the  example  of  all  Reformation ;  in  this 
more  inexcusable  than  Saul,  that  Saul  was  at  length 
convinced,  he  to  the  hour  of  death  fixed  in  his 
false  persuasion  ;  and  soothes  himself  in  the  flatter- 
ing peace  of  an  erroneous  and  obdurate  conscience  ; 
singing  to  his  soul  vain  psalms  of  exultation,  as  if 
the  Parliament  had  assailed  his  reason  with  the 
force  of  arms,  and  not  he  on  the  contrary  their 
reason  with  his  arms;  which  hath  been  proved 

already,  and  shall  be  more  hereafter 

He  complains  "  that  civil  war  must  be  the  fruits 
of  his  seventeen  years'  reigning  with  such  a  meas- 
ure of  justice,  peace,  plenty,  and  religion,  as  all 
nations  either  admired  or  envied."  For  the  justice 
we  had,  let  the  council-table,  star-chamber,  high- 
commission  speak  the  praise  of  it ;  not  forgetting 
the  unprincely  usage,  and,  as  far  as  might  be,  the 
abolishing  of  Parliaments,  the  displacing  of  honest 
judges,  the  sale  of  offices,  bribery,  and  exaction, 
not  found  out  to  be  punished,  but  to  be  shared  in 
with  impunity  for  the  time  to  come.  Who  can 
number  the  extortions,  the  oppressions,  the  public 
robberies  and  rapines  committed  on  the  subject 
both  by  sea  and  land,  under  various  pretences? 
their  possessions  also  taken  from  them,  one  while 
as  forest-land,  another  while  as  crown-land;  nor 
were  their  goods  exempted,  no,  not  the  bullion  in 
the  mint ;  piracy  was  become  a  project  owned  and 
authorized  against  the  subject.  For  the  peace  we 


222  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

had,  what  peace  was  that  which  drew  out  the  Eng- 
lish to  a  needless  and  dishonorable  voyage  against 
the  Spaniard  at  Gales?  Or  that  which  lent  our 
shipping  to  a  treacherous  and  antichristian  war 
against  the  poor  Protestants  of  Rochelle,  our  sup- 
pliants ?  What  peace  was  that  which  fell  to  rob 
the  French  by  sea,  to  the  embarring  of  all  our 
merchants  in  that  kingdom  ?  which  brought  forth 
that  unblest  expedition  to  the  Isle  of  EM,  doubtful 
whether  more  calamitous  in  the  success,  or  in  the 
design,  betraying  all  the  flower  of  our  military 
youth  and  best  commanders  to  a  shameful  surprisal 
and  execution.  This  was  the  peace  we  had,  and 
the  peace  we  gave,  whether  to  friends  or  to  foes 
abroad.  And  if  at  home  any  peace  were  intended 
us,  what  meant  those  Irish  billeted  soldiers  in  all 
parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  design  of  German 
horse  to  subdue  us  in  our  peaceful  houses  ? 

For  our  religion,  where  was  there  a  more  igno- 
rant, profane,  and  vicious  clergy,  learned  in  nothing 
but  the  antiquity  of  their  pride,  their  covetousness, 
and  superstition  ?  whose  unsincere  and  leavenous 
doctrine,  corrupting  the  people,  first  taught  them 
looseness,  then  bondage ;  loosening  them  from  all 
sound  knowledge  and  strictness  of  life,  the  more 
to  fit  them  for  the  bondage  of  tyranny  and  super- 
stition. So  that  what  was  left  us  for  other  nations 
not  to  pity,  rather  than  admire  or  envy,  all  those 
seventeen  years,  no  wise  man  could  see.  For 
wealth  and  plenty  in  a  land  where  justice  reigns 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  '  223 

not  is  no  argument  of  a  flourishing  state,  but  of  a 
nearness  rather  to  ruin  or  commotion. 

These  were  not  "some  miscarriages"  only  of 
government,  "  which  might  escape,"  but  a  univer- 
sal distemper,  and  reducement  of  law  to  arbitrary 
power ;  not  through  the  evil  counsels  of  "  some 
men,"  but  through  the  constant  course  and  prac- 
tice of  all  that  were  in  highest  favor :  whose  worst 
actions  frequently  avowing  he  took  upon  himself; 
and  what  faults  did  not  yet  seem  in  public  to  be 
originally  his,  such  care  he  took  by  professing  and 
proclaiming  openly,  as  made  them  all  at  length  his 
own  adopted  sins.  The  persons  also,  when  he 
could  no  longer  protect,  he  esteemed  and  favored 
to  the  end  ;  but  never  otherwise  than  by  constraint 
yielded  any  of  them  to  due  punishment ;  thereby 
manifesting  that  what  they  did  was  by  his  own 
authority  and  approbation. 

Yet  here  he  asks,  "whose  innocent  blood  he 
hath  shed,  what  widows'  or  orphans'  tears  can  wit- 
ness against  him?"  After  the  suspected  poisoning 
of  his  father,  not  inquired  into  but  smothered  up, 
and  him  protected  and  advanced  to  the  very  half 
of  his  kingdom,  who  was  accused  in  Parliament  to 
be  the  author  of  the  fact ;  (with  much  more  evi- 
dence than  Duke  Dudley,  that  false  protector,  is 
accused  upon  record  to  have  poisoned  Edward  the 
Sixth  ;)  after  all  his  rage  and  persecution,  after  so 
many  years  of  cruel  war  on  his  people  in  three 
kingdoms !  Whence  the  author  of  "  Truths  Mani- 


224  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

fest,"  a  Scotsman,  not  unacquainted  with  affairs, 
positively  affirms,  "  that  there  hath  been  more 
Christian  blood  shed  by  the  commission,  approba- 
tion, and  connivance  of  King  Charles,  and  his 
father  James,  in  the  latter  end  of  their  reign,  than 
in  the  ten  Roman  persecutions."  Not  to  speak  of 
those  many  whippings,  pillories,  and  other  corporal 
inflictions,  wherewith  his  reign  also,  before  this 
war,  was  not  unbloody ;  some  have  died  in  prison 
under  cruel  restraint,  others  in  banishment,  whose 
lives  were  shortened  through  the  rigor  of  that  per- 
secution wherewith  so  many  years  he  infested  the 
true  Church. 

And  those  six  members  all  men  judged  to  have 
escaped  no  less  than  capital  danger,  whom  he,  so 
greedily  pursuing  into  the  House  of  Commons,  had 
not  there  the  forbearance  to  conceal  how  much  it 
troubled  him,  "that  the  birds  were  flown."  If 
some  vulture  in  the  mountains  could  have  opened 
his  beak  intelligibly  and  spoke,  what  fitter  words 
could  he  have  uttered  at  the  loss  of  his  prey? 
The  tyrant  Nero,  though  not  yet  deserving  that 
name,  set  his  hand  so  unwillingly  to  the  execution 
of  a  condemned  person,  as  to  wish  "  he  had  not 
known  letters."  Certainly  for  a  king  himself  to 
charge  his  subjects  with  high-treason,  and  so  vehe- 
mently to  prosecute  them  in  his  own  cause,  as  to 
do  the  office  of  a  searcher,  argued  in  him  no  great 
aversation  from  shedding  blood,  were  it  but  to 
"  satisfy  his  anger,"  and  that  revenge  was  no  un- 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  225 

pleasing  morsel  to  him,  whereof  he  himself  thought 
not  much  to  be  so  diligently  his  own  caterer.  But 
we  insist  rather  upon  what  was  actual  than  what 
was  probable 

It  were  a  folly  beyond  ridiculous,  to  count  our- 
selves a  free  nation,  if  the  king,  not  in  Parliament, 
but  in  his  own  person,  and  against  them,  might 
appropriate  to  himself  the  strength  of  a  whole  na- 
tion as  his  proper  goods.  What  the  laws  of  the 
land  are,  a  Parliament  should  know  best,  having 
both  the  life  and  death  of  laws  in  their  law-giving 
power :  and  the  law  of  England  is,  at  best,  but  the 
reason  of  Parliament 

But  what  needed  that  ?  "  They  knew  his  chief- 
est  arms  left  him  were  those  only  which  the  ancient 
Christians  were  wont  to  use  against  then*  perse- 
cutors,—  prayers  and  tears."  O  sacred  reverence 
of  God !  respect  and  shame  of  men !  whither  were 
ye  fled  when  these  hypocrisies  were  uttered  ? 
Was  the  kingdom  then  at  all  that  cost  of  blood  to 
remove  from  him  none  but  prayers  and  tears  ? 
What  were  those  thousands  of  blaspheming  cav- 
aliers about  him,  whose  mouths  let  fly  oaths  and 
curses  by  the  volley :  were  those  the  prayers ;  and 
those  carouses  drunk  to  the  confusion  of  all  things 
good  or  holy,  did  those  minister  the  tears?  Were 
they  prayers  and  tears  that  were  listed  at  York, 
mustered  on  Heworth  Moor,  and  laid  siege  to  Hull 
for  the  guard  of  his  person  ?  Were  prayers  and 
tears  at  so  high  a  rate  in  Holland,  that  nothing 
10*  o 


226  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

could  purchase  them  but  the  crown  jewels  ?  Yet 
they  in  Holland  (such  word  was  sent  us)  sold  them 
for  guns,  carabines,  mortar-pieces,  cannons,  and 
other  deadly  instruments  of  war ;  which,  when, 
they  came  to  York,  were  all,  no  doubt  by  the 
merit  of  some  great  saint,  suddenly  transformed 
into  prayers  and  tears:  and,  being  divided  into 
regiments  and  brigades,  were  the  only  arms  that 
mischieved  us  in  all  those  battles  and  encounters. 

These  were  his  chief  arms,  whatever  we  must 
call  them,  and  yet  such  arms  as  they  who  fought 
for  the  commonwealth  have,  by  the  help  of  better 
prayers,  vanquished  and  brought  to  nothing 

As  for  sole  power  of  the  militia,  which  he  claims 
as  a  right  no  less  undoubted  than  the  crown,  it 
hath  been  oft  enough  told  him  that  he  hath  no  more 
authority  over  the  sword  than  over  the  law :  over 
.the  law  he  hath  none,  either  to  establish  or  to 
abrogate,  to  interpret  or  to  execute,  but  only  by 
his  courts  and  in  his  courts,  whereof  the  Parlia- 
ment is  highest ;  no  more,  therefore,  hath  he  power 
of  the  militia,  which  is  the  sword,  either  to  use  or 
to  dispose,  but  with  consent  of  Parliament:  give 
him  but  that,  and  as  good  give  him  in  a  lump  all 
our  laws  and  liberties.  For  if  the  power  of  the 
sword  were  anywhere  separate  and  undepending 
from  the  power  of  the  law,  which  is  originally 
seated  in  the  highest  court,  then  would  that  power 
of  the  sword  be  soon  master  of  the  law :  and  being 
at  one  man's  disposal  might,  when  he  pleased,  con- 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  227 

trol  the  law  ;  and  in  derision  of  our  Magna  Charta, 
which  were  but  weak  resistance  against  an  armed 
tyrant,  might  absolutely  enslave  us.  And  not  to 
have  in  ourselves,  though  vaunting  to  be  freeborn, 
the  power  of  our  own  freedom,  and  the  public 
safety,  is  a  degree  lower  than  not  to  have  the  prop- 
erty of  our  own  goods.  For  h'berty  of  person,  and 
the  right  of  self-preservation,  is  much  nearer, 
much  more  natural,  and  more  worth  to  all  men, 
than  the  property  of  their  goods  and  wealth.  Yet 
such  power  as  all  this  did  the  king  in  open  terms 
challenge  to  have  over  us,  and  brought  thou- 
sands to  help  him  win  it;  so  much  more  good 
at  fighting  than  at  understanding,  as  to  persuade 
themselves,  that  they  fought  then  for  the  subject's 

liberty 

"  This  honor,"  he  saith,  "  they  did  him,  to  put 
him  on  the  giving  part."  And  spake  truer  than 
he  intended,  it  being  merely  for  honor's  sake  that 
they  did  so ;  not  that  it  belonged  to  him  of  right : 
for  what  can  he  give  to  a  Parliament,  who  receives 
all  he  hath  from  the  people,  and  for  the  people's 
good?  Yet  now  he  brings  his  own  conditional 
rights  to  contest  and  be  preferred  before  the  peo- 
ple's good ;  and  yet,  unless  it  be  in  order  to  then1 
good,  he  hath  no  rights  at  all;  reigning  by  the 
laws  of  the  land,  not  by  his  own ;  which  laws  are 
in  the  hands  of  Parliament  to  change  or  abrogate 
as  they  see  best  for  the  commonwealth,  even  to  the 
taking  away  of  kingship  itself,  when  it  grows  too 
masterful  and  burdensome. 


228  FROM  E1KONOKLASTES. 

For  every  commonwealth  is  in  general  defined, 
a  society  sufficient  of  itself,  in  all  things  conducible 
to  well-being  and  commodious  life.  Any  of  which 
requisite  things,  if  it  cannot  have  without  the  gift 
and  favor  of  a  single  person,  or  without  leave  of 
his  private  reason  or  his  conscience,  it  cannot  be 
thought  sufficient  of  itself,  and  by  consequence  no 
commonwealth,  nor  free ;  but  a  multitude  of  vassals 
in  the  possession  and  domain  of  one  absolute  lord, 
and  wholly  obnoxious  to  his  will.  If  the  king  have 
power  to  give  or  deny  anything  to  his  Parliament, 
he  must  do  it  either  as  a  person  several  from  them, 
or  as  one  greater :  neither  of  which  will  be  allowed 
him :  not  to  be  considered  severally  from  them ; 
for  as  the  king  of  England  can  do  no  wrong,  so 
neither  can  he  do  right  but  in  his  courts  and  by 
his  courts ;  and  what  is  legally  done  in  them,  shall 
be  deemed  the  king's  assent,  though  he  as  a  several 
person  shall  judge  or  endeavor  the  contrary ;  so 
that  indeed  without  his  courts,  or  against  them,  he 
is  no  king.  If  therefore  he  obtrude  upon  us  any 
public  mischief,  or  withhold  from  us  any  general 
good,  which  is  wrong  in  the  highest  degree,  he 
must  do  it  as  a  tyrant,  not  as  a  king  of  England, 
by  the  known  maxims  of  our  law.  Neither  can  he, 
as  one  greater,  give  aught  to  the  Parliament  which 
is  not  in  their  own  power,  but  he  must  be  greater 
also  than  the  kingdom  which  they  represent:  so 
that  to  honor  him  with  the  giving  part  was  a  mere 
civility,  and  may  be  well  termed  the  courtesy  of 
England,  not  the  king's  due 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  229 

But  the  "  incommunicable  jewel  of  his  con- 
science" he  will  not  give,  "but  reserve  to  him- 
self." It  seems  that  his  conscience  was  none  of 
the  crown  jewels ;  for  those  we  know  were  hi 
Holland,  not  incommunicable,  to  buy  arms  against 
his  subjects.  Being  therefore  but  a  private  jewel, 
he  could  not  have  done  a  greater  pleasure  to  the 
kingdom,  than  by  reserving  it  to  himself.  But  he, 
contrary  to  what  is  here  professed,  would  have  his 
conscience  not  an  incommunicable,  but  a  universal 
conscience,  the  whole  kingdom's  conscience.  Thus 
what  he  seems  to  fear  lest  we  should  ravish  from 
him,  is  our  chief  complaint  that  he  obtruded  upon 
us ;  we  never  forced  him  to  part  with  his  conscience, 
but  it  was  he  that  would  have  forced  us  to  part 
with  ours. 

•  •  •  *  • 

Some  things  they  proposed  "  which  would  have 
wounded  the  inward  peace  of  his  conscience." 
The  more  our  evil  hap,  that  three  kingdoms  should 
be  thus  pestered  with  one  conscience  ;  who  chiefly 
scrupled  to  grant  us  that,  which  the  Parliament 
advised  him  to,  as  the  chief  means  of  our  public 
welfare  and  reformation.  These  scruples  to  many 
perhaps  will  seem  pretended;  to  others,  upon  as 
good  grounds,  may  seem  real ;  and  that  it  was  the 
just  judgment  of  God,  that  he  who  was  so  cruel 
and  so  remorseless  to  other  men's  consciences, 
should  have  a  conscience  within  him  as  cruel 
to  himself;  constraining  him  as  he  constrained 


230  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

others,  and  ensnaring  him  in  such  ways  and  coun- 
sels as  were  certain  to  be  his  destruction 

But  "  to  exclude  him  from  all  power  of  denial 
seems  an  arrogance  " ;  in  the  Parliament,  he  means : 
what  in  him  then  to  deny  against  the  Parliament  ? 
None  at  all,  by  what  he  argues :  for,  "  by  petition- 
ing they  confess  their  inferiority,  and  that  obliges 
them  to  rest,  if  not  satisfied,  yet  quieted,  with  such 
an  answer  as  the  will  and  reason  of  their  superior 
thinks  fit  to  give."  First,  petitioning,  in  better 
English,  is  no  more  than  requesting  or  requiring ; 
and  men  require  not  favors  only,  but  their  due ; 
and  that  not  only  from  superiors,  but  from  equals, 
and  inferiors  also.  The  noblest  Romans,  when 
they  stood  for  that  which  was  a  kind  of  regal  honor, 
the  consulship,  were  wont  in  a  submissive  manner 
to  go  about,  and  beg  that  highest  dignity  of  the 
meanest  plebeians,  naming  them  man  by  man; 
which  in  their  tongue  was  called  petitio  consulatus. 
And  the  Parliament  of  England  petitioned  the 
king,  not  because  all  of  them  were  inferior  to  him, 
but  because  he  was  inferior  to  any  one  of  them, 
which  they  did  of  civil  custom,  and  for  fashion's 
sake,  more  than  of  duty;  for  by  plain  law  cited 
before,  the  Parliament  is  his  superior. 

But  what  law  in  any  trial  or  dispute  enjoins  a 
freeman  to  rest  quieted,  though  not  satisfied,  with 
the  will  and  reason  of  his  superior  ?  It  were  a 
mad  law  that  would  subject  reason  to  superiority 
of  place.  And  if  our  highest  consultations  and 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  231 

purposed  laws  must  be  terminated  by  the  king's 
will,  then  is  the  will  of  one  man  our  law,  and  no 
subtlety  of  dispute  can  redeem  the  Parliament  and 
nation  from  being  slaves :  neither  can  any  tyrant 
require  more  than  that  his  will  or  reason,  though 
not  satisfying,  should  yet  be  rested  in,  and  deter- 
mine all  things.  We  may  conclude,  therefore, 
that  when  the  Parliament  petitioned  the  king,  it 
was  but  merely  form,  let  it  be  as  "  foolish  and  ab- 
surd" as  he  pleases.  It  cannot  certainly  be  so 
absurd  as  what  he  requires,  that  the  Parliament 
should  confine  their  own  and  all  the  kingdom's 
reason  to  the  will  of  one  man,  because  it  was  his 
hap  to  succeed  his  father.  For  neither  God  nor 
the  laws  have  subjected  us  to  his  will,  nor  set  his 
reason  to  be  our  sovereign  above  law,  (which  must 
needs  be,  if  he  can  strangle  it  in  the  birth,)  but 
set  his  person  over  us  in  the  sovereign  execution 
of  such  laws  as  the  Parliament  establish.  The 
Parliament,  therefore,  without  any  usurpation,  hath 
had  it  always  in  their  power  to  limit  and  confine 
the  exorbitancy  of  kings,  whether  they  call  it  their 

will,  their  reason,  or  their  conscience 

He  falls  next  to  flashes,  and  a  multitude  of 
words,  in  all  which  is  contained  no  more  than  what 
might  be  the  plea  of  any  guiltiest  offender :  —  he 
was  not  the  author,  because  "  he  hath  the  greatest 
share  of  loss  and  dishonor  by  what  is  committed." 
Who  is  there  that  offends  God,  or  his  neighbor,  on 
whom  the  greatest  share  of  loss  and  dishonor  lights 


232  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

not  in  the  end  ?  But  in  act  of  doing  evil,  men  use 
not  to  consider  the  event  of  these  evil  doings ;  or 
if  they  do,  have  then  no  power  to  curb  the  sway 
of  their  own  wickedness ;  so  that  the  greatest  share 
of  loss  and  dishonor  to  happen  upon  themselves,  is 
no  argument  that  they  were  not  guilty.  .... 

It  must  needs  seem  strange,  where  men  accus- 
tom themselves  to  ponder  and  contemplate  things 
in  their  first  original  and  institution,  that  kings, 
who,  as  all  other  officers  of  the  public,  were  at  first 
chosen  and  installed  only  by  consent  and  suffrage 
of  the  people,  to  govern  them  as  freemen  by  laws 
of  their  own  making,  and  to  be,  in  consideration 
of  that  dignity  and  riches  bestowed  upon  them,  the 
intrusted  servants  of  the  commonwealth,  should, 
notwithstanding,  grow  up  to  that  dishonest  en- 
croachment, as  to  esteem  themselves  masters,  both 
of  that  great  trust  which  they  serve,  and  of  the 
people  that  betrusted  them ;  counting  what  they 
ought  to  do,  both  in  discharge  of  their  public  duty, 
and  for  the  great  reward  of  honor  and  revenue 
which  they  receive,  as  done  all  of  mere  grace  and 
favor ;  as  if  their  power  over  us  were  by  nature, 
and  from  themselves,  or  that  God  had  sold  us  into 
their  hands. 

Indeed,  if  the  race  of  kings  were  eminently  the 
best  of  men,  as  the  breed  at  Tutbury  is  of  horses, 
it  would  in  reason  then  be  their  part  only  to  com- 
mand, ours  always  to  obey.  But  kings,  by  genera- 
tion no  way  excelling  others,  and  most  commonly 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  233 

not  being  the  wisest  or  the  worthiest  by  far  of 
whom  they  claim  to  have  the  governing ;  that  we 
should  yield  them  subjection  to  our  own  ruin,  or 
hold  of  them  the  right  of  our  common  safety,  and 
our  natural  freedom  by  mere  gift,  from  the  super- 
fluity of  their  royal  grace  and  beneficence,  we  may 
be  sure  was  never  the  intent  of  God,  whose  ways 
are  just  and  equal ;  never  the  intent  of  nature, 
whose  works  are  also  regular ;  never  of  any  people 
not  wholly  barbarous,  whom  prudence,  or  no  more 
but  human  sense,  would  have  better  guided  when 
they  first  created  kings,  than  so  to  nullify  and  tread 
to  dirt  the  rest  of  mankind,  by  exalting  one  person 
and  his  lineage  without  other  merit  looked  after, 
but  the  mere  contingency  of  a  begetting,  into  an 
absolute  and  unaccountable  dominion  over  them 

and  their  posterity 

He  imagines  his  "  own  judicious  zeal  to  be  most 
concerned  in  his  tuition  of  the  Church."  So 
thought  Saul  when  he  presumed  to  offer  sacrifice, 
for  which  he  lost  his  kingdom  ;  so  thought  Uzziah 
when  he  went  into  the  temple,  but  was  thrust  out 
with  a  leprosy  for  his  opinioned  zeal,  which  he 
thought  judicious.  It  is  not  the  part  of  a  king, 
because  he  ought  to  defend  the  Church,  therefore 
to  set  himself  supreme  head  over  the  Church,  or 
to  meddle  with  ecclesial  government,  or  to  de- 
fend the  Church  otherwise  than  the  Church  would 
be  defended ;  for  such  defence  is  bondage  ;  not  to 
defend  abuses,  and  stop  all  reformation,  under  the 


234  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

name  of  "new  moulds  fancied  and  fashioned  to 
private  designs." 

The  holy  things  of  Church  are  in  the  power  of 
other  keys  than  were  delivered  to  his  keeping. 
Christian  liberty,  purchased  with  the  death  of  our 
Redeemer,  and  established  by  the  sending  of  his 
free  Spirit  to  inhabit  in  us,  is  not  now  to  depend 
upon  the  doubtful  consent  of  any  earthly  monarch ; 
nor  to  be  again  fettered  with  a  presumptuous  neg- 
ative voice,  tyrannical  to  the  Parliament,  but  much 
more  tyrannical  to  the  Church  of  God ;  which 
was  compelled  to  implore  the  aid  of  Parliament,  to 
remove  his  force  and  heavy  hands  from  off  our 
consciences,  who  therefore  complains  now  of  that 
most  just  defensive  force,  because  only  it  removed 
his  violence  and  persecution.  If  this  be  a  viola- 
tion to  his  conscience,  that  it  was  hindered  by  the 
Parliament  from  violating  the  more  tender  con- 
sciences of  so  many  thousand  good  Christians,  let 
the  usurping  conscience  of  all  tyrants  be  ever  so 
violated !  .  .  .  . 

This  is  evident,  that  they  "  who  use  no  set 
forms  of  prayer,"  have  words  from  their  affections; 
while  others  are  to  seek  affections  fit  and  propor- 
tionable to  a  certain  dose  of  prepared  words ;  which, 
as  they  are  not  rigorously  forbid  to  any  man's  pri- 
vate infirmity,  so  to  imprison  and  confine  by  force, 
into  a  pinfold  of  set  words,  those  two  most  unim- 
prisonable  things,  our  prayers,  and  that  divine 
spirit  of  utterance  that  moves  them,  is  a  tyranny 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  235 

that  would  have  longer  hands  than  those  giants 
who  threatened  bondage  to  heaven.  What  we 
may  do  in  the  same  form  of  words  is  not  so  much 
the  question,  as  whether  liturgy  may  be  forced  as 
he  forced  it.  It  is  true  that  we  "  pray  to  the  same 
God  " ;  must  we,  therefore,  always  use  the  same 
words  ?  Let  us  then  use  but  one  word,  because 
we  pray  to  one  God.  "  We  profess  the  same 
truths " :  but  the  liturgy  comprehends  not  all 
truths :  "  we  read  the  same  Scriptures,"  but  never 
read  that  all  those  sacred  expressions,  all  benefit 
and  use  of  Scripture,  as  to  public  prayer,  should  be 
denied  us,  except  what  was  barrelled  up  in  a  com- 
mon-prayer book  with  many  mixtures  of  their  own, 
and,  which  is  worse,  without  salt. 

But  suppose  them  savory  words  and  unmixed, 
suppose  them  manna  itself,  yet,  if  they  shall  be 
hoarded  up  and  enjoined  us,  while  God  every 
morning  rains  down  new  expressions  into  our 
hearts  ;  instead  of  being  fit  to  use,  they  will  be 
found,  like  reserved  manna,  rather  to  breed  worms 
and  stink.  "  We  have  the  same  duties  upon  us, 
and  feel  the  same  wants  "  ;  yet  not  always  the 
same,  nor  at  all  times  alike  ;  but  with  variety  of 
circumstances,  which  ask  variety  of  words,  where- 
of God  hath  given  us  plenty ;  not  to  use  so  copi- 
ously upon  all  other  occasions,  and  so  niggardly  to 
him  alone  in  our  devotions.  As  if  Christians  were 
now  in  a  worse  famine  of  words  fit  for  prayer,  than 
was  of  food  at  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  when  per- 


236  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

haps  the  priests  being  to  remove  the  show-bread, 
as  was  accustomed,  were  compelled  every  Sabbath- 
day,  for  want  of  other  loaves,  to  bring  again  still 
the  same.  If  the  "  Lord's  Prayer  "  had  been  the 
"  warrant,  or  the  pattern  of  set  liturgies,"  as  is  here 
affirmed,  why  was  neither  that  prayer,  nor  any 
other  set  form,  ever  after  used,  or  so  much  as  men- 
tioned by  the  apostles,  much  less  commended  to 
our  use  ?  Why  was  their  care  wanting  in  a  thing 
so  useful  to  the  Church  ?  so  full  of  danger  and 
contention  to  be  left  undone  by  them  to  other  men's 
penning,  of  whose  authority  we  could  not  be  so 
certain  ?  Why  was  this  forgotten  by  them,  who 
declare  that  they  have  revealed  to  us  the  whole 
counsel  of  God  ?  who,  as  he  left  our  affections  to  be 
guided  by  his  sanctifying  Spirit,  so  did  he  likewise 
our  words  to  be  put  into  us  without  our  premedita- 
tion ;  not  only  those  cautious  words  to  be  used  before 
Gentiles  and  tyrants,  but  much  more  those  filial 
words,  of  which  we  have  so  frequent  use  in  our  ac- 
cess with  freedom  of  speech  to  the  throne  of  grace. 
Which  to  lay  aside  for  other  outward  dictates  of 
men,  were  to  injure  him  and  his  perfect  gift,  who 
is  the  spirit,  and  giver  of  our  ability  to  pray :  as 
if  his  ministration  were  incomplete,  and  that  to 
whom  he  gave  affections,  he  did  not  also  afford 
utterance  to  make  his  gift  of  prayer  a  perfect  gift  ; 
to  them  especially,  whose  office  in  the  Church  is  to 
pray  publicly. 

And  although  the  gift  were  only  natural,  yet 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  237 

voluntary  prayers  are  less  subject  to  formal  and 
superficial  tempers  than  set  forms.  For  in  those,  at 
least  for  words  and  matter,  he  who  prays  must  con- 
sult first  with  his  heart,  which  in  likelihood  may 
stir  up  his  affections ;  in  these,  having  both  words 
and  matter  ready  made  to  his  lips,  which  is  enough 
to  make  up  the  outward  act  of  prayer,  his  affec- 
tions grow  lazy,  and  come  not  up  easily  at  the  call 
of  words  not  their  own.  The  prayer  also  having 
less  intercourse  and  sympathy  with  a  heart  where- 
in it  was  not  conceived,  saves  itself  the  labor  of  so 
long  a  journey  downward,  and  flying  up  in  haste 
on  the  specious  wings  of  formality,  if  it  fall  not 
back  again  headlong,  instead  of  a  prayer  which 
was  expected,  presents  God  with  a  set  of  stale  and 

empty  words 

We  may  have  learnt,  both  from  sacred  history 
and  times  of  reformation,  that  the  kings  of  this 
world  have  both  ever  hated  and  instinctively  feared 
the  Church  of  God.  Whether  it  be  for  that  their 
doctrine  seems  much  to  favor  two  things  to  them 
so  dreadful,  liberty  and  equality  ;  or  because  they 
are  the  children  of  that  kingdom,  which,  as  an- 
cient prophecies  have  foretold,  shall  in  the  end 
break  to  pieces  and  dissolve  all  their  great  power 
and  dominion.  And  those  kings  and  potentates 
who  have  strove  most  to  rid  themselves  of  this  fear, 
by  cutting  off  or  suppressing  the  true  Church,  have 
drawn  upon  themselves  the  occasion  of  their  own 
ruin,  while  they  thought  with  most  policy  to  pre- 


238  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

vent  it.  Thus  Pharaoh,  when  once  he  began  to 
fear  and  wax  jealous  of  the  Israelites,  lest  they 
should  multiply  and  fight  against  him,  and  that 
fear  stirred  him  up  to  afflict  and  keep  them  under, 
as  the  only  remedy  of  what  he  feared,  soon  found 
that  the  evil  which  before  slept,  came  suddenly 
upon  him,  by  the  preposterous  way  he  took  to  pre- 
vent it. 

Passing  by  examples  between,  and  not  shutting 
wilfully  our  eyes,  we  may  see  the  like  story  brought 
to  pass  in  our  own  land.  This  king,  more  than 
any  before  him,  except  perhaps  his  father,  from  his 
first  entrance  to  the  crown,  harboring  in  his  mind 
a  strange  fear  and  suspicion  of  men  most  religious, 
and  their  doctrine,  which  in  his  own  language  he 
here  acknowledges,  terming  it  "  the  seditious  ex 
orbitancy"  of  ministers'  tongues,  and  doubting 
"lest  they,"  as  he  not  Christianly  express  it, 
"  should  with  the  keys  of  heaven  let  out  peace  and 
loyalty  from  the  people's  hearts."  Though  they 
never  preached  or  attempted  aught  that  might 
justly  raise  in  him  such  thoughts,  he  could  not 
rest,  or  think  himself  secure,  so  long  as  they  re- 
mained in  any  of  his  three  kingdoms  unrooted  out. 

But  outwardly  professing  the  same  religion  with 
them,  he  could  not  presently  use  violence  as 
Pharaoh  did  ;  and  that  course  had  with  others 
before  but  ill  succeeded.  He  chooses  therefore  a 
more  mystical  way,  a  newer  method  of  antichris- 
tian  fraud,  to  the  Church  more  dangerous;  and, 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  239 

like  to  Balak  the  son  of  Zippor,  against  a  nation  of 
prophets  thinks  it  best  to  hire  other  esteemed 
prophets,  and  to  undermine  and  wear  out  the  true 
Church  by  a  false  ecclesiastical  policy.  To  this 
drift  he  found  the  government  of  bishops  most 
serviceable ;  an  order  in  the  Church,  as  by  men 
first  corrupted,  so  mutually  corrupting  them  who 
receive  it,  both  in  judgment  and  manners.  He, 
by  conferring  bishoprics  and  great  livings  on  whom 
he  thought  most  pliant  to  his  will,  against  the 
known  canons  and  universal  practice  of  the  ancient 
Church,  whereby  those  elections  were  the  people's 
right,  sought,  as  he  confesses  to  have  "greatest 
influence  upon  churchmen."  They  on  the  other 
side  finding  themselves  in  a  high  dignity,  neither 
founded  by  Scripture,  nor  allowed  by  reformation, 
nor  supported  by  any  spiritual  gift  or  grace  of  their 
own,  knew  it  their  best  course  to  hare  dependence 
only  upon  him ;  and  wrought  his  fancy  by  degrees 
to  that  degenerate  and  unkingly  persuasion  of  "  No 
bishop,  no  king."  Whenas  on  the  contrary  all 
prelates  in  their  own  subtle  sense  are  of  another 
mind ;  according  to  that  of  Pius  IV.,  remembered 
in  the  history  of  Trent,  that  bishops  then  grow  to 
be  most  vigorous  and  potent,  when  princes  happen 
to  be  most  weak  and  impotent. 

Thus  when  both  interest  of  tyranny  and  episco- 
pacy were  incorporate  into  each  other,  the  king, 
whose  principal  safety  and  establishment  consisted 
in  the  righteous  execution  of  his  civil  power,  and 


240  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

not  in  bishops  and  their  wicked  counsels,  fatally 
driven  on,  set  himself  to  the  extirpating  of  those 
men  whose  doctrine  and  desire  of  Church-dis- 
cipline he  so  feared  would  be  the  undoing  of  his 
monarchy.  And  because  no  temporal  law  could 
touch  the  innocence  of  their  lives,  he  begins  with 
the  persecution  of  their  consciences,  laying  scan- 
dals before  them ;  and  makes  that  the  argument  to 
inflict  his  unjust  penalties  both  on  their  bodies  and 
estates.  In  this  war  against  the  Church,  if  he 
had  sped  so,  as  other  haughty  monarchs  whom  God 
heretofore  hath  hardened  to  the  like  enterprise, 
we  ought  to  look  up  with  praise  and  thanksgiving 
to  the  Author  of  our  deliverance,  to  whom  victory 
and  power,  majesty,  honor,  and  dominion  belong 
forever. 

In  the  mean  while,  from  his  own  words  we  may 
perceive  easily  that  the  special  motives  which  he 
had  to  endear  and  deprave  his  judgment  to  the 
favoring  and  utmost  defending  of  episcopacy,  are 
such  as  here  we  represent  them ;  and  how  unwill- 
ingly, and  with  what  mental  reservation,  he  con- 
descended, against  his  interest,  to  remove  it  out  of 
the  Peers'  House,  hath  been  shown  already.  The 
reasons,  which,  he  affirms,  wrought  so  much  upon 
his  judgment,  shall  be  so  far  answered  as  they  be 
urged 

"If  the  way  of  treaties  be  looked  upon,"  in 
general,  "  as  retiring  "  from  bestial  force  to  human 
reason,  his  first  aphorism  here  is  in  part  deceived. 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  241 

For  men  may  treat  like  beasts  as  well  as  fight.  If 
some  fighting  were  not  manlike,  then  either  forti- 
tude were  no  virtue,  or  no  fortitude  in  fighting. 
And  as  politicians  ofttimes  through  dilatory  pur- 
poses and  emulations  handle  the  matter,  there  hath 
been  nowhere  found  more  bestiality  than  in  treat- 
ing; which  hath  no  more  commendations  in  it, 
than  from  fighting  to  come  to  undermining,  from 
violence  to  craft ;  and  when  they  can  no  longer  do 

as  lions,  to  do  as  foxes 

For  if  neither  God  nor  nature  put  civil  power  in 
the  hands  of  any  whomsoever,  but  to  a  lawful  end, 
and  commands  our  obedience  to  the  authority  of 
law  only,  not  to  the  tyrannical  force  of  any  person ; 
and  if  the  laws  of  our  land  have  placed  the  sword 
in  no  man's  single  hand,  so  much  as  to  unsheath 
against  a  foreign  enemy,  much  less  upon  the  native 
people ;  but  have  placed  it  in  that  elective  body  of 
the  Parliament,  to  whom  the  making,  repealing, 
judging,  and  interpreting  of  law  itself  was  also 
committed,  as  was  fittest,  so  long  as  we  intended 
to  be  a  free  nation,  and  not  the  slaves  of  one  man's 
will ;  then  was  the  king  himself  disobedient  and 
rebellious  to  that  law  by  which  he  reigned :  and 
by  authority  of  Parliament  to  raise  arms  against 
him  in  defence  of  law  and  liberty,  we  do  not  only 
think,  but  believe  and  know,  was  justifiable  both 
"  by  the  word  of  God,  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  all 
lawful  oaths";  and  they  who  sided  with  him 
fought  against  all  these. 

n  p 


242  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

The  same  allegations  which  he  uses  for  himself 
and  his  party,  may  as  well  fit  any  tyrant  in  the 
world ;  for  let  the  Parliament  be  called  a  faction 
when  the  king  pleases,  and  that  no  law  must  be 
made  or  changed,  either  civil  or  religious,  because 
no  law  will  content  all  sides,  then  must  be  made 
or  changed  no  law  at  all,  but  what  a  tyrant,  be  he 
Protestant  or  Papist,  thinks  fit.  Which  tyrannous 
assertion  forced  upon  us  by  the  sword,  he  who 
fights  against,  and  dies  fighting,  if  his  other  sins 
outweigh  not,  dies  a  martyr  undoubtedly  both  of 
the  faith  and  of  the  commonwealth  ;  and  I  hold  it 
not  as  the  opinion,  but  as  the  full  belief  and  per- 
suasion, of  far  holier  and  wiser  men  than  parasitic 
preachers ;  who,  without  their  dinner-doctrine, 
know  that  neither  king,  law,  civil  oaths,  nor  religion, 
was  ever  established  without  the  Parliament.  And 
their  power  is  the  same  to  abrogate  as  to  establish  ; 
neither  is  anything  to  be  thought  established, 
which  that  House  declares  to  be  abolished.  Where 
the  Parliament  sits,  there  inseparably  sits  the  king, 
there  the  laws,  there  our  oaths,  and  whatsoever 
can  be  civil  in  religion.  They  who  fought  for  the 
Parliament,  in  the  truest  sense,  fought  for  all  these  ; 
who  fought  for  the  king  divided  from  his  Parlia- 
ment, fought  for  the  shadow  of  a  king  against  all 
these  ;  and  for  things  that  were  not,  as  if  they  were 
established.  It  were  a  thing  monstrously  absurd 
and  contradictory,  to  give  the  Parliament  a  legis- 
lative power,  and  then  to  upbraid  them  for  trans- 
gressing old  establishments 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  243 

He  would  work  the  people  to  a  persuasion,  that 
"if  he  be  miserable,  they  cannot  be  happy." 
What  should  hinder  them  ?  Were  they  all  born 
twins  of  Hippocrates  with  him  and  his  fortune,  one 
birth,  one  burial  ?  It  were  a  nation  miserable  in- 
deed, not  worth  the  name  of  a  nation,  but  a  race 
of  idiots,  whose  happiness  and  welfare  depended 
upon  one  man.  The  happiness  of  a  nation  consists 
in  true  religion,  piety,  justice,  prudence,  temper- 
ance, fortitude,  and  the  contempt  of  avarice  and 
ambition.  They  in  whomsoever  these  virtues 
dwell  eminently,  need  not  kings  to  make  them 
happy,  but  are  the  architects  of  their  own  happi- 
ness ;  and,  whether  to  themselves  or  others,  are 
not  less  than  kings 

Hitherto  his  meditations,  now  his  vows ;  which, 
as  the  vows  of  hypocrites  used  to  be,  are  most  com- 
monly absurd,  and  some  wicked.  Jacob  vowed 
that  God  should  be  his  God,  if  he  granted  him  but 
what  was  necessary  to  perform  that  vow,  life  and 
subsistence  :  but  the  obedience  proffered  here  is 
nothing  so  cheap.  He,  who  took  so  heinously  to 
be  offered  nineteen  propositions  from  the  Parlia- 
ment, capitulates  here  with  God  almost  in  as  many 
articles. 

"  If  he  will  continue  that  light,"  or  rather  that 
darkness  of  the  Gospel,  which  is  among  his  prelates, 
settle  their  luxuries,  and  make  them  gorgeous  bish- 
ops ; 

If  he  will  "  restore  "  the  grievances  and  mis- 


244  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

chiefs  of  those  obsolete  and  Popish  laws,  which  the 
Parliament  without  his  consent  had  abrogated,  and 
will  suffer  justice  to  be  executed  according  to  his 
sense  ; 

"If  he  will  suppress  the  many  schisms  in 
Church,"  to  contradict  himself  in  that  which  he 
had  foretold  must  and  shall  come  to  pass,  and  will 
remove  reformation  as  the  greatest  schism  of  all, 
and  factions  in  state,  by  which  he  means  in  every 
leaf,  the  Parliament ; 

If  he  will  "  restore  him  "  to  his  negative  voice 
and  the  militia,  as  much  as  to  say,  to  arbitrary 
power,  which  he  wrongfully  avers  to  be  the  "  right 
of  his  predecessors  " ; 

"  If  he  will  turn  the  hearts  of  his  people  "  to 
their  old  cathedral  and  parochial  service  in  the  lit- 
urgy, and  their  passive  obedience  to  the  king  ; 

"  If  he  will  quench  "  the  army,  and  withdraw 
our  forces  from  withstanding  the  piracy  of  Rupert, 
and  the  plotted  Irish  invasion  ; 

"  If  he  will  bless  him  with  the  freedom "  of 
bishops  again  in  the  House  of  Peers,  and  of  fugi- 
tive delinquents  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
deliver  the  honor  of  Parliament  into  his  hands, 
from  the  most  natural  and  due  protection  of  the 
people  that  intrusted  them  with  the  dangerous  en- 
terprise of  being  faithful  to  their  country  against 
the  rage  and  malice  of  his  tyrannous  opposition ; 

"  If  he  will  keep  him  from  that  great  offence," 
of  following  the  counsel  of  his  Parliament,  and 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  245 

enacting  what  they  advise  him  to  :  which  in  all 
reason,  and  by  the  known  law,  and  oath  of  his  cor- 
onation, he  ought  to  do,  and  not  to  call  that  sacri- 
lege, which  necessity,  through  the  continuance  of 
his  own  civil  war,  hath  compelled  him  to  ;  ne- 
cessity, which  made  David  eat  the  showbread, 
made  Ezekiah  take  all  the  silver  which  was  found 
in  God's  house,  and  cut  off  the  gold  which  over- 
laid those  doors  and  pillars,  and  gave  it  to  Sennache- 
rib; necessity  which  ofttimes  made  the  primitive 
Church  to  sell  her  sacred  utensils,  even  to  the 
communion-chalice ; 

"  If  he  will  restore  him  to  a  capacity  of  glorify- 
ing him  by  doing  "  that  both  in  Church  and  State, 
which  must  needs  dishonor  and  pollute  his  name  ; 

"  If  he  will  bring  him  again  with  peace,  honor, 
and  safety  to  his  chief  city,"  without  repenting, 
without  satisfying  for  the  blood  spilt,  only  for  a 
few  politic  concessions,  which  are  as  good  as  noth- 
ing; 

"  If  he  will  put  again  the  sword  into  his  hand, 
to  punish "  those  that  have  delivered  us,  and  to 
protect  delinquents  against  the  justice  of  Parlia- 
ment "  ; 

Then,  if  it  be  possible  to  reconcile  contradic- 
tions, he  will  praise  him  by  displeasing  him,  and 
serve  him  by  disserving  him. 

"  His  glory,"  in  the  gaudy  copes  and  painted 
windows,  mitres,  rochets,  altars,  and  the  chanted 
service-book,  "  shall  be  dearer  to  him,"  than  the  es- 


246  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

tablishing  his  crown  in  righteousness,  and  the  spirit- 
ual power  of  religion.  "  He  will  pardon  those  that 
have  offended  him  in  particular  " ;  but  there  shall 
want  no  subtle  ways  to  be  even  with  them  upon 
another  score  of  their  supposed  offences  against 
the  commonwealth  ;  whereby  he  may  at  once  af- 
fect the  glory  of  a  seeming  justice,  and  destroy 
them  pleasantly,  while  he  feigns  to  forgive  them 
as  to  his  own  particular,  and  outwardly  bewails 
them. 

These  are  the  conditions  of  his  treating  with 
God,  to  whom  he  bates  nothing  of  what  he  stood 
upon  with  the  Parliament :  as  if  commissions  of 
array  could  deal  with  him  also.  But  of  all  these 
conditions,  as  it  is  now  evident  in  our  eyes,  God 
accepted  none,  but  that  final  petition,  which  he  so 
oft,  no  doubt  but  by  the  secret  judgment  of  God, 
importunes  against  his  own  head ;  praying  God, 
"  That  his  mercies  might  be  so  toward  him,  as  his 
resolutions  of  truth  and  peace  were  toward  his 
people."  It  follows  then,  God  having  cut  him 
off  without  granting  any  of  these  mercies,  that 
his  resolutions  were  as  feigned  as  his  vows  were 
frustrate 

It  being  now  no  more  in  his  hand  to  be  re- 
venged on  his  opposers,  he  seeks  to  satiate  his  fan- 
cy with  the  imagination  of  some  revenge  upon 
them  from  above  ;  and,  like  one  who  in  a  drouth 
observes  the  sky,  he  sits  and  watches  when  any- 
thing will  drop,  that  might  solace  him  with  the 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  247 

likeness  of  a  punishment  from  heaven  upon  us; 
which  he  straight  expounds  how  he  pleases.  No 
evil  can  befall  the  Parliament  or  city  but  he 
positively  interprets  it  a  judgment  upon  them 
for  his  sake  ;  as  if  the  very  manuscript  of  God's 
judgments  had  been  delivered  to  his  custody  and 
exposition.  But  his  reading  declares  it  well  to  be 
a  false  copy  which  he  uses  ;  dispensing  often  to  his 
own  bad  deeds  and  successes  the  testimony  of  di- 
vine favor,  and  to  the  good  deeds  and  successes  of 
other  men  divine  wrath  and  vengeance. 

But  to  counterfeit  the  hand  of  God  is  the  bold- 
est of  all  forgery.  And  he  who  without  warrant 
but  his  own  fantastic  surmise,  takes  upon  him  per- 
petually to  unfold  the  secret  and  unsearchable 
mysteries  of  high  providence,  is  likely  for  the 
most  part  to  mistake  and  slander  them ;  and 
approaches  to  the  madness  of  those  reprobate 
thoughts  that  would  wrest  the  sword  of  justice 
out  of  God's  hand,  and  employ  it  more  justly  in 
their  own  conceit.  It  was  a  small  thing  to  con- 
tend with  the  Parliament  about  the  sole  power  of 
the  militia,  when  we  see  him  doing  little  less  than 
laying  hands  on  the  weapons  of  God  himself, 
which  are  his  judgments,  to  wield  and  manage 
them  by  the  sway  and  bent  of  his  own  frail  cogi- 
tations. Therefore  "  they  that  by  tumults  first 
occasioned  the  raising  of  armies "  in  his  doom 
must  needs  "  be  chastened  by  their  own  army  for 
new  tumults." 


248  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

•"  He  cannot  but  observe  this  divine  justice,  yet 
with  sorrow  and  pity."  But  sorrow  and  pity  in  a 
weak  and  over-mastered  enemy  is  looked  upon  no 
otherwise  than  as  the  ashes  of  his  revenge  burnt 
out  upon  himself,  or  as  the  damp  of  a  cooled  fury, 
when  we  say,  it  gives.  But  in  this  manner  to  sit 
spelling  and  observing  divine  justice  upon  every 
accident  and  slight  disturbance  that  may  happen 
humanly  to  the  affairs  of  men,  is  but  another  frag- 
ment of  his  broken  revenge  ;  and  yet  the  shrewd- 
est and  the  cunningest  obloquy  that  can  be  thrown 
upon  their  actions.  For  if  he  can  persuade  men 
that  the  Parliament  and  their  cause  is  pursued 
with  divine  vengeance,  he  hath  attained  his  end, 
to  make  all  men  forsake  them,  and  think  the  worst 
that  can  be  thought  of  them. 

Nor  is  he  only  content  to  suborn  divine  justice 
in  his  censure  of  what  is  past,  but  he  assumes  the 
person  of  Christ  himself,  to  prognosticate  over  us 
what  he  wishes  would  come.  So  little  is  anything 
or  person  sacred  from  him,  no  not  in  heaven,  which 
he  will  not  use,  and  put  on,  if  it  may  serve  him 
plausibly  to  wreak  his  spleen,  or  ease  his  mind 
upon  the  Parliament.  Although,  if  ever  fatal 
blindness  did  both  attend  and  punish  wilfulness,  if 
ever  any  enjoyed  not  comforts  for  neglecting  coun- 
sel belonging  to  their  peace,  it  was  in  none  more 
conspicuously  brought  to  pass  than  in  himself;  and 
his  predictions  against  the  Parliament  and  their 
adherents  have  for  the  most  part  been  verified 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  249 

upon  his  own  head,  and  upon  his  chief  counsel- 
lors  

It  is  a  rule  and  principle  worthy  to  be  known 
by  Christians,  that  no  Scripture,  no,  nor  so  much 
as  any  ancient  creed,  binds  our  faith,  or  our  obe- 
dience to  any  church  whatsoever,  denominated  by 
a  particular  name ;  far  less,  if  it  be  distinguished 
by  a  several  government  from  that  which  is  indeed 
catholic.  No  man  was  ever  bid  be  subject  to  the 
church  of  Corinth,  Rome,  or  Asia,  but  to  the 
Church  without  addition,  as  it  held  faithful  to  the 
rules  of  Scripture,  and  the  government  established . 
in  all  places  by  the  Apostles ;  which  at  first  was 
universally  the  same  in  all  churches  and  congrega- 
tions ;  not  differing  or  distinguished  by  the  diver- 
sity of  countries,  territories,  or  civil  bounds.  That 
church,  that  from  the  name  of  a  distinct  place  takes 
authority  to  set  up  a  distinct  faith  or  government, 
is  a  schism  and  faction,  not  a  church.  It  were  an 
injury  to  condemn  the  Papist  of  absurdity  and  con- 
tradiction, for  adhering  to  his  Catholic  Romish 
religion,  if  we,  for  the  pleasure  of  a  king  and  his 
politic  considerations,  shall  adhere  to  a  Catholic 
English 

It  happened  once,  as  we  find  in  Esdras  and 
Josephus,  authors  not  less  believed  than  any  under 
sacred,  to  be  a  great  and  solemn  debate  in  the 
court  of  Darius,  what  thing  was  to  be  counted 
strongest  of  all  other.  He  that  could  resolve  this, 
in  reward  of  his  excellent  wisdom,  should  be  clad 
11* 


250  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

in  purple,  drink  in  gold,  sleep  on  a  bed  of  gold, 
and  sit  next  Darius.  None  but  they,  doubtless, 
who  were  reputed  wise,  had  the  question  pro- 
pounded to  them;  who,  after  some  respite  given 
them  bj  the  king  to  consider,  in  full  assembly  of 
all  his  lords  and  gravest  counsellors,  returned  sev- 
erally what  they  thought.  The  first  held  that 
wine  was  strongest ;  another,  that  the  king  was 
strongest;  but  Zorobabel,  prince  of  the  captive 
Jews,  and  heir  to  the  crown  of  Judah,  being  one 
of  them,  proved  women  to  be  stronger  than  the 
king,  for  that  he  himself  had  seen  a  concubine 
take  his  crown  from  off  his  head  to  set  it  upon  her 
own;  and  others  beside  him  have  likewise  seen 
the  like  feat  done,  and  not  in  jest.  Yet  he  proved 
on,  and  it  was  so  yielded  by  the  king  himself,  and 
all  his  sages,  that  neither  wine,  nor  women,  nor 
the  king,  but  truth  of  all  other  things  was  the 
strongest. 

For  me,  though  neither  asked,  nor  in  a  na- 
tion that  gives  such  rewards  to  wisdom,  I  shall 
pronounce  my  sentence  somewhat  different  from 
Zorobabel ;  and  shall  defend  that  either  truth  and 
justice  are  all  one,  (for  truth  is  but  justice  in  our 
knowledge,  and  justice  is  but  truth  in  our  prac- 
tice ;)  and  he  indeed  so  explains  himself,  in  saying 
that  with  truth  is  no  accepting  of  persons,  which 
is  the  property  of  justice,  or  else  if  there  be  any 
odds,  that  justice,  though  not  stronger  than  truth, 
yet  by  her  office,  is  to  put  forth  and  exhibit  more 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  251 

strength  in  the  affairs  of  mankind.  For  truth  is 
properly  no  more  than  contemplation  ;  and  her 
utmost  efficiency  is  but  teaching:  but  justice  in 
her  very  essence  is  all  strength  and  activity ;  and 
hath  a  sword  put  into  her  hand,  to  use  against  all 
violence  and  oppression  on  the  earth.  She  it  is 
most  truly,  who  accepts  no  person,  and  exempts 
none  from  the  severity  of  her  stroke.  She  never 
suffers  injury  to  prevail,  but  when  falsehood  first 
prevails  over  truth ;  and  that  also  is  a  kind  of 
justice  done  on  them  who  are  so  deluded.  Though 
wicked  kings  and  tyrants  counterfeit  her  sword,  as 
some  did  that  buckler  fabled  to  fall  from  heaven 
into  the  capitol,  yet  she  communicates  her  power 
to  none  but  such  as,  like  herself,  are  just,  or  at 
least  will  do  justice.  For  it  were  extreme  partiality 
and  injustice,  the  flat  denial  and  overthrow  of  her- 
self, to  put  her  own  authentic  sword  into  the  hand 
of  an  unjust  and  wicked  man,  or  so  far  to  accept 
and  exalt  one  mortal  person  above  his  equals,  that 
he  alone  shall  have  the  punishing  of  all  other  men 
transgressing,  and  not  receive  like  punishment  from 
men,  when  he  himself  shah1  be  found  the  highest 
transgressor. 

We  may  conclude,  therefore,  that  justice,  above 
all  other  things,  is  and  ought  to  be  the  strongest ; 
she  is  the  strength,  the  kingdom,  the  power,  and 
majesty  of  all  ages.  Truth  herself  would  subscribe 
to  this,  though  Darius  and  all  the  monarchs  of  the 
world  should  deny.  And  if  by  sentence  thus  writ- 


252  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

ten  it  were  my  happiness  to  set  free  the  minds  of 
Englishmen  from  longing  to  return  poorly  under 
that  captivity  of  kings  from  which  the  strength  and 
supreme  sword  of  justice  hath  delivered  them,  I 
shall  have  done  a  work  not  much  inferior  to  that 
of  Zorobabel ;  who,  by  well-praising  and  extolling 
the  force  of  truth,  in  that  contemplative  strength 
conquered  Darius,  and  freed  his  country  and  the 
people  of  God  from  the  captivity  of  Babylon. 
Which  I  shall  yet  not  despair  to  do,  if  they  in  this 
land,  whose  minds  are  yet  captive,  be  but  as  in- 
genuous to  acknowledge  the  strength  and  suprem- 
acy of  justice,  as  that  heathen  king  was  to  confess 
the  strength  of  truth :  or  let  them  but,  as  he  did, 
grant  that,  and  they  will  soon  perceive  that  truth 
resigns  all  her  outward  strength  to  justice  :  justice 
therefore  must  needs  be  strongest,  both  in  her  own, 
and  in  the  strength  of  truth.  But  if  a  king  may 
do  among  men  whatsoever  is  his  will  and  pleasure, 
and  notwithstanding  be  unaccountable  to  men, 
then,  contrary  to  his  magnified  wisdom  of  Zorob- 
abel, neither  truth  nor  justice,  but  the  king,  is 
strongest  of  all  other  things,  which  that  Persian 
monarch  himself,  in  the  midst  of  all  his  pride  and 

glory,  durst  not  assume 

So  much  he  thinks  to  abound  in  his  own  defence, 
that  he  undertakes  an  unmeasurable  task,  to  be- 
speak "  the  singular  care  and  protection  of  God 
over  all  kings,"  as  being  the  greatest  patrons  of 
law,  justice,  order,  and  religion  on  earth.  But 


FROM  EIKONOKLASTES.  253 

what  patrons  they  be,  God  in  the  Scripture  oft 
enough  hath  expressed ;  and  the  earth  itself  hath 
too  long  groaned  under  the  burden  of  their  injus- 
tice, disorder,  and  irreligion.  Therefore  "  to  bind 
their  kings  in  chains,  and  their  nobles  with  links 
of  iron,"  is  an  honor  belonging  to  his  saints ;  not 
to  build  Babel,  (which  was  Nimrod's  work,  the 
first  king,  and  the  beginning  of  his  kingdom  was 
Babel,)  but  to  destroy  it,  especially  that  spiritual 
Babel :  and  first  to  overcome  those  European 
kings,  which  receive  their  power,  not  from  God, 
but  from  the  beast ;  and  are  counted  no  better  than 
his  ten  horns.  "  These  shall  hate  the  great  whore," 
and  yet  "shall  give  their  kingdoms  to  the  beast 
that  carries  her;  they  shall  commit  fornication 
with  her,"  and  yet  "  shall  burn  her  with  fire," 
and  yet  "  shall  lament  the  fall  of  Babylon,"  where 
they  fornicated  with  her.  Rev.  xvii.  xviii. 

Thus  shall  they  be  to  and  fro,  doubtful  and 
ambiguous  in  all  their  doings,  until  at  last,  "join- 
ing their  armies  with  the  beast,"  whose  power  first 
raised  them,  they  shall  perish  with  him  by  the 
"  King  of  kings,"  against  whom  they  have  re- 
belled ;  and  "  the  fowls  shall  eat  their  flesh." 
This  is  their  doom  written,  Rev.  xix.,  and  the 
utmost  that  we  find  concerning  them  in  these  latter 
days ;  which  we  have  much  more,  cause  to  believe, 
than  his  unwarranted  revelation  here,  prophesying 
what  shall  follow  after  his  death,  with  the  spirit  of 
enmity,  not  of  St.  John. 


254  FROM  EIKONOKLASTES. 

He  would  fain  bring  us  out  of  conceit  with  the 
good  success,  which  God  vouchsafed  us.  We 
measure  not  our  cause  by  our  success,  but  our 
success  by  our  cause.  Yet  certainly  in  a  good 
cause  success  is  a  good  confirmation ;  for  God 
hath  promised  it  to  good  men  almost  in  every  leaf 
of  Scripture.  If  it  argue  not  for  us,  we  are  sure 
it  argues  not  against  us ;  but  as  much  or  more  for 
us,  than  ill  success  argues  for  them ;  for  to  the 
wicked  God  hath  denounced  ill  success  in  all  they 
take  in  hand. 


FROM 

A  DEFENCE   OF  THE   PEOPLE   OF 
ENGLAND, 

IN  ANSWER  TO 

SALMASIUS'S  DEFENCE   OF  THE   KING. 

ALTHOUGH  I  fear,  lest,  if  in  defend- 
ing the  people  of  England,  I  should  be 
as  copious  in  words,  and  empty  of  mat- 
ter, as  most  men  think  Salmasius  has 
been  in  his  defence  of  the  king,  I  might  seem  to 
deserve  justly  to  be  accounted  a  verbose  and  silly 
defender  ;  yet  since  no  man  thinks  himself  obliged 
to  make  so  much  haste,  though  in  the  handling 
but  of  any  ordinary  subject,  as  not  to  premise 
some  introduction  at  least,  according  as  the  weight 
of  the  subject  requires  ;  if  I  take  the  same  course 
in  handling  almost  the  greatest  subject  that  ever 
was  (without  being  too  tedious  in  it)  I  am  in  hopes 
of  attaining  two  things,  which  indeed  I  earnestly 
desire  :  the  one,  not  to  be  at  all  wanting,  as  far  as 
in  me  lies,  to  this  most  noble  cause  and  most  wor- 
thy to  be  recorded  to  all  future  ages ;  the  other, 
that  I  may  appear  to  have  myself  avoided  that 


256  FROM  A  DEFENCE  OF 

frivolousness  of  matter,  and  redundancy  of  words, 
which  I  blame  in  my  antagonist.  For  I  am  about 
to  discourse  of  matters  neither  inconsiderable  nor 
common,  but  how  a  most  potent  king,  after  he  had 
trampled  upon  the  laws  of  the  nation,  and  given  a 
shock  to  its  religion,  and  began  to  rule  at  his  own 
will  and  pleasure,  was  at  last  subdued  in  the  field 
by  his  own  subjects,  who  had  undergone  a  long 
slavery  under  him;  how  afterwards  he  was  cast 
into  prison,  and  when  he  gave  no  ground,  either 
by  words  or  actions,  to  hope  better  things  of  him, 
was  finally  by  the  supreme  council  of  the  kingdom 
condemned  to  die,  and  beheaded  before  the  very 
gates  of  the  royal  palace.  I  shall  likewise  relate 
(which  will  much  conduce  to  the  easing  men's 
minds  of  a  great  superstition)  by  what  right,  es- 
pecially according  to  our  law,  this  judgment  was 
given,  and  all  these  matters  transacted ;  and  shall 
easily  defend  my  valiant  and  worthy  countrymen 
(who  have  extremely  well  deserved  of  all  subjects 
and  nations  in  the  world)  from  the  most  wicked 
calumnies  both  of  domestic  and  foreign  railers,  and 
especially  from  the  reproaches  of  this  most  vain  and 
empty  sophist,  who  sets  up  for  a  captain  and  ring- 
leader to  all  the  rest.  For  what  king's  majesty, 
sitting  upon  an  exalted  throne,  ever  shone  so  bright- 
ly, as  that  of  the  people  of  England  then  did,  when, 
shaking  off  that  old  superstition,  which  had  pre- 
vailed a  long  time,  they  gave  judgment  upon  the 
king  himself,  or  rather  upon  an  enemy  who  had 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  257 

been  their  king,  caught  as  it  were  in  a  net  by  his 
own  laws,  (who  alone  of  all  mortals  challenged  to 
himself  impunity  by  a  divine  right,)  and  scrupled 
not  to  inflict  the  same  punishment  upon  him,  being 
guilty,  which  he  would  have  inflicted  upon  any 
other?  But  why  do  I  mention  these  things  as 
performed  by  the  people,  which  almost  open  their 
voice  themselves,  and  testify  the  presence  of  God 
throughout  ?  who,  as  often  as  it  seems  good  to  his- 
infinite  wisdom,  uses  to  throw  down  proud  and  un- 
ruly kings,  exalting  themselves  above  the  condition 
of  human  nature,  and  utterly  to  extirpate  them 
and  all  their  family.  By  his  manifest  impulse 
being  set  at  work  to  recover  our  almost  lost  liber- 
ty, following  him  as  our  guide,  and  adoring  the  im- 
presses of  his  divine  power  manifested  upon  all 
occasions,  we  went  on  in  no  obscure,  but  an  illus- 
trious passage,  pointed  out  and  made  plain  to  us  by 
God  himself.  Which  things,  if  I  should  so  much 
as  hope  by  any  diligence  or  ability  of  mine,  such 
as  it  is,  to  discourse  of  as  I  ought  to  do,  and  to 
commit  them  so  to  writing,  as  that  perhaps  all  na- 
tions and  all  ages  may  read  them,  it  would  be  a 
very  vain  thing  in  me.  For  what  style  can  be  au- 
gust and  magnificent  enough,  what  man  has  ability 
sufficient,  to  undertake  so  great  a  task  ?  Since  we 
find  by  experience,  that  in  so  many  ages  as  are 
gone  over  the  world,  there  has  been  but  here  and 
there  a  man  found,  who  has  been  able  worthily  to 
recount  the  actions  of  great  heroes,  and  potent 

Q 


258  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

states ;  can  any  man  have  so  good  an  opinion  of 
his  own  talents,  as  to  think  himself  capable  of 
reaching  these  glorious  and  wonderful  works  of 
Almighty  God,  by  any  language,  by  any  style  of 
his  ?  Which  enterprise,  though  some  of  the  most 
eminent  persons  in  our  commonwealth  have  pre- 
vailed upon  me  by  their  authority  to  undertake, 
and  would  have  it  be  my  business  to  vindicate  with 
my  pen  against  envy  and  calumny  (which  are 
proof  against  arms)  those  glorious  performances 
of  theirs,  (whose  opinion  of  me  I  take  as  a  very 
great  honor,  that  they  should  pitch  upon  me 
before  others  to  be  serviceable  in  this  kind  of  those 
most  valiant  deliverers  of  my  native  country  ;  and 
true  it  is,  .that  from  my  very  youth,  I  have  been 
bent  extremely  upon  such  sort  of  studies,  as  in- 
clined me,  if  not  to  do  great  things  myself,  at  least 
to  celebrate  those  that  did,)  yet  as  having  no  con- 
fidence in  any  such  advantages,  I  have  recourse  to 
the  divine  assistance ;  and  invoke  the  great  and 
holy  God,  the  giver  of  all  good  gifts,  that  I  may  as 
substantially,  and  as  truly,  discourse  and  refute  the 
sauciness  and  lies  of  this  foreign  declaimer,  as  our 
noble  generals  piously  and  successfully  by  force  of 
arms  broke  the  king's  pride,  and  his  unruly  domi- 
neering, and  afterwards  put  an  end  to  both  by  in- 
flicting a  memorable  punishment  upon  himself,  and 
as  thoroughly  as  a  single  person  did  with  ease  but 
of  late  confute  and  confound  the  king  himself,  ris- 
ing as  it  were  from  the  grave,  and  recommending 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  259 

himself  to  the  people  in  a  book  published  after  his 
death,  with  new  artifices  and  allurements  of  words 

and  expressions 

"  A  horrible  message  had  lately  struck  our  ears, 
but  our  minds  more,  with  a  heinous  wound  con- 
cerning a  parricide  committed  in  England  in  the 
person  of  a  king,  by  a  wicked  conspiracy  of  sacri- 
legious men."  Indeed  that  horrible  message  must 
either  have  had  a  much  longer  sword  than  that 
which  Peter  drew,  or  those  ears  must  have  been  of 
a  wonderful  length,  that  it  cou^  wound  at  such  a 
distance  ;  for  it  could  not  so  much  as  in  the  least 
offend  any  ears  but  those  of  an  ass.  For  what 
harm  is  it  to  you,  that  are  foreigners  ?  are  any  of 
you  hurt  by  it,  if  we  amongst  ourselves  put  our 
own  enemies,  our  own  traitors  to  death,  be  they 
commoners,  noblemen,  or  kings  ?  Do  you,  Sal- 
masius,  let  alone  what  does  not  concern  you :  for  I 
have  a  horrible  message  to  bring  of  you  too ;  which 
I  am  mistaken  if  it  strike  not  a  more  heinous 
wound  into  the  ears  of  all  grammarians  and  critics, 
provided  they  have  any  learning  and  delicacy  in 
them,  to  wit,  your  crowding  so  many  barbarous 
expressions  together  in  one  period '  in  the  person 
of  (Aristarchus)  a  grammarian  ;  and  that  so  great 
a  critic  as  you,  hired  at  the  king's  charge  to  write 
a  defence  of  the  king  his  father,  should  not  only 
set  so  fulsome  a  preface  before  it,  much  like  those 
lamentable  ditties  that  used  to  be  sung  at  funerals, 
and  which  can  move  compassion  in  none  but  a  cox- 


260  FROM  A   DEFENCE  OF 

comb ;  but  in  the  very  first  sentence  should  provoke 
your  readers  to  laughter  with  so  many  barbarisms 
all  at  once.  "  Persona  regis,"  you  cry.  Where 
do  you  find  any  such  Latin  ?  or  are  you  telling 
us  some  tale  or  other  of  a  Perkin  Warbec,  who, 
taking  upon  him  the  person  of  a  king,  has,  for- 
sooth, committed  some  horrible  parricide  in  Eng- 
land ?  which  expression,  though  dropping  carelessly 
from  your  pen,  has  more  truth  in  it  than  you 
are  aware  of.  For  a  tyrant  is  but  like  a  king 
upon  a  stage,  a  man  in  a  visor,  and  acting  the  part 
of  a  king  in  a  play ;  he  is  not  really  a  king.  But 
as  for  these  Gallicisms,  that  are  so  frequent  in 
your  book,  I  won't  lash  you  for  them  myself,  for  I 
am  not  at  leisure  ;  but  shall  deliver  you  over  to 
your  fellow-grammarians,  to  be  laughed  to  scorn 
and  whipped  by  them 

Men  at  first  united  into  civil  societies,  that  they 
might  live  safely,  and  enjoy  their  liberty,  without 
being  wronged  or  oppressed  ;  and  that  they  might 
live  religiously,  and  according  to  the  doctrine  of 
Christianity,  they  united  themselves  into  churches. 
Civil  societies  have  laws,  and  churches  have  a 
discipline  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  far  diifering 
from  each  other.  And  this  has  been  the  occasion 
of  so  many  wars  in  Christendom  ;  to  wit,  because 
the  civil  magistrate  and  the  Church  confounded 
their  jurisdictions 

You  are  in  perfect  darkness,  that  make  no  dif- 
ference betwixt  a  paternal  power,  and  a  regal ;  and 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  261 

that  when  you  had  called  kings  fathers  of  their 
country,  could  fancy  that  with  that  metaphor  you 
had  persuaded  us,  that  whatever  is  applicable  to  a 
father,  is  so  to  a  king.  Alas  !  there  is  a  great  dif- 
ference betwixt  them.  Our  fathers  begot  us.  Our 
king  made  not  us,  but  we  him.  Nature  has  given 
fathers  to  us  all,  but  we  ourselves  appointed  our 
own  king.  So  that  the  people  is  not  for  the  king, 
but  the  king  for  them.  "  We  bear  with  a  father, 
though  he  be  harsh  and  severe  "  ;  and  so  we  do 
with  a  king.  But  we  do  not  bear  with  a  father, 
if  he  be  a  tyrant.  If  a  father  murder  his  son,  he 
himself  must  die  for  it ;  and  why  should  not  a  king 
be  subject  to  the  same  law,  which  certainly  is  a 
most  just  one  ?  especially  considering  that  a  father 
cannot  by  any  possibility  divest  himself  of  that  re- 
lation, but  a  king  may  easily  make  himself  neither 
king  nor  father  of  his  people.  If  this  action  of 
ours  be  considered  according  to  its  quality,  as  you 
call  it,  I,  who  am  both  an  Englishman  born,  and 
was  an  eye-witness  of  the  transactions  of  these 
times,  tell  you,  who  are  both  a  foreigner  and  an 
utter  stranger  to  our  affairs,  that  we  have  put  to 
death  neither  a  good,  nor  a  just,  nor  a  merciful, 
nor  a  devout,  nor  a  godly,  nor  a  peaceable  king,  as 
you  style  him  ;  but  an  enemy,  that  has  been  so  to 
us  almost  ten  years  to  an  end ;  nor  one  that  was  a 

father,  but  a  destroyer  to  his  country 

That  it  is  lawful  to  depose  a  tyrant,  and  to  pun- 
ish him  according  to  his  deserts  ;  nay,  that  this  is 


262  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

the  opinion  of  very  eminent  divines,  and  of  such  as 
have  been  most  instrumental  in  the  late  reforma- 
tion, do  you  deny  it  if  you  dare.  You  confess, 
that  many  kings  have  come  to  an  unnatural  death ; 
some  by  the  sword,  some  poisoned,  some  strangled, 
and  some  in  a  dungeon  ;  but  for  a  king  to  be  ar- 
raigned in  a  court  of  judicature,  to  be  put  to  plead 
for  his  life,  to  have  sentence  of  death  pronounced 
against  him,  and  that  sentence  executed  ;  this  you 
think  a  more  lamentable  instance  than  all  the  rest, 
and  make  it  a  prodigious  piece  of  impiety.  Tell  me, 
thou  superlative  fool,  whether  it  be  not  more  just, 
more  agreeable  to  the  rules  of  humanity,  and  the 
laws  of  all  human  societies,  to  bring  a  criminal,  be 
his  offence  what  it  will,  before  a  court  of  justice,  to 
give  him  leave  to  speak  for  himself;  and,  if  the 
law  condemn  him,  then  to  put  him  to  death  as  he 
has  deserved,  so  as  he  may  have  time  to  repent  or 
to  recollect  himself;  than  presently,  as  soon  as  ever 
he  is  taken,  to  butcher  him  without  more  ado  ? 
Do  you  think  there  is  a  malefactor  in  the  world, 
that  if  he  might  have  his  choice,  would  not  choose 
to  be  thus  dealt  withal  ?  And  if  this  sort  of  pro- 
ceeding against  a  private  person  be  accounted  the 
fairer  of  the  two,  why  should  it  not  be  counted  so 
against  a  prince  ?  Nay,  why  should  we  not  think, 
that  himself  liked  it  better  ?  You  would  have  had 
him  killed  privately,  and  none  to  have  seen  it, 
either  that  future  ages  might  have  lost  the  advan- 
tage of  so  good  an  example  ;  or  that  they  that  did 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  263 

this  glorious  action,  might  seem  to  have  avoided 
the  light,  and  to  have  acted  contrary  to  law  and 
justice.  You  aggravate  the  matter  by  telling  us, 
that  it  was  not  done  in  an  uproar,  or  brought  about 
by  any  faction  amongst  great  men,  or  in  the  heat 
of  a  rebellion,  either  of  the  people  or  the  soldiers  : 
that  there  was  no  hatred,  no  fear,  no  ambition,  no 
blind  precipitate  rashness  in  the  case  ;  but  that  it 
was  long  consulted  on,  and  done  with  deliberation. 
You  did  well  in  leaving  off  being  an  Advocate, 
and  turn  grammarian,  who,  from  the  accidents  and 
circumstances  of  a  thing,  which  in  themselves  con- 
sidered sway  neither  one  way  nor  other,  argue  in 
dispraise  of  it,  before  you  have  proved  the  thing 
itself  to  be  either  good  or  bad.  See  how  open  you 
lie  :  if  the  action  you  are  discoursing  of  be  com- 
mendable and  praiseworthy,  they  that  did  it  de- 
serve the  greater  honor,  in  that  they  were  pre- 
possessed with  no  passions,  but  did  what  they 
did  for  virtue's  sake.  If  there  were  great  diffi- 
culty in  the  enterprise,  they  did  well  in  not  going 
about  it  rashly,  but  upon  advice  and  consideration. 
Though  for  my  own  part,  when  I  call  to  mind 
with  how  unexpected  an  importunity  and  fervency 
of  mind,  and  with  how  unanimous  a  consent,  the 
whole  army,  and  a  great  part  of  the  people  from 
almost  every  county  in  the  kingdom,  cried  out  with 
one  voice  for  justice  against  the  king,  as  being  the 
sole  author  of  all  their  calamities,  I  cannot  but 
think,  that  these  things  were  brought  about  by  a 


264  FROM  A   DEFENCE  OF 

divine  impulse.  Whatever  the  matter  was,  wheth- 
er we  consider  the  magistrates,  or  the  body  of  the 
people,  no  men  ever  undertook  with  more  courage, 
and,  which  our  adversaries  themselves  confess,  in 
a  more  sedate  temper  of  mind,  so  brave  an  action ; 
an  action  that  might  have  become  those  famous  he- 
roes, of  whom  we  read  in  former  ages ;  an  action, 
by  which  they  ennobled  not  only  laws,  and  their 
execution,  which  seem  for  the  future  equally  re- 
stored to  high  and  low  against  one  another ;  but 
even  justice,  and  to  have  rendered  it,  after  so  sig- 
nal a  judgment,  more  illustrious  and  greater  than 
in  its  own  self.  .... 

If  whatever  a  king  has  a  mind  to  do,  the  right 
of  kings  will  bear  him  out  in,  (which  was  a  lesson 
that  the  bloody  tyrant,  Antoninus  Caracalla,  though 
his  step-mother  Julia  preached  it  to  him,  and  en- 
deavored to  inure  him  to  the  practice  of  it,  by 
making  him  commit  incest  with  herself,  yet  could 
hardly  suck  in,)  then  there  neither  is,  nor  ever 
was,  that  king,  that  deserved  the  name  of  a  tyrant. 
They  may  safely  violate  all  the  laws  of  God  and 
man :  their  very  being  kings  keeps  them  innocent. 
What  crime  was  ever  any  of  them  guilty  of? 
They  did  but  make  use  of  their  own  right  upon 
their  own  vassals.  No  king  can  commit  such 
horrible  cruelties  and  outrages,  as  will  not  be 
within  this  right  of  kings.  So  that  there  is  no 
pretence  left  for  any  complaints  or  expostulations 
with  any  of  them.  And  dare  you  assert,  that 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  265 

"  this  right  of  kings,"  as  you  call  it,  "  is  grounded 
upon  the  law  of  nations,  or  rather  upon  that  of 
nature,"  you  brute  beast?  for  you  deserve  not 
the  name  of  a  man,  that  are  so  cruel  and  unjust 
towards  all  those  of  your  own  kind ;  that  en- 
deavor, as  much  as  in  you  lies,  so  to  bear  down 
and  vilify  the  whole  race  of  mankind,  that  were 
made  after  the  image  of  God,  as  to  assert  and 
maintain,  those  cruel  and  unmerciful  taskmasters, 
that  through  the  superstitious  whimsies,  or  sloth, 
or  treachery  of  some  persons,  get  into  the  chair, 
are  provided  and  appointed  by  nature  herself,  that 
mild  and  gentle  mother  of  us  all,  to  be  the  gov- 
ernors of  those  nations  they  enslave.  By  which 
pestilent  doctrine  of  yours,  having  rendered  them 
more  fierce  and  untractable,  you  not  only  enable 
them  to  make  havoc  of,  and  trample  under  foot, 
their  miserable  subjects ;  but  endeavor  to  arm  them 
for  that  very  purpose  with  the  law  of  nature,  the 
right  of  kings,  and  the  very  constitutions  of  gov- 
ernment, than  which  nothing  can  be  more  impious 

or  ridiculous 

I  confess  there  are  but  few,  and  those  men  of 
great  wisdom  and  courage,  that  are  either  desirous 
of  liberty,  or  capable  of  using  it.  The  greatest 
part  of  the  world  choose  to  live  under  masters ; 
but  yet  they  would  have  them  just  ones.  As  for 
such  as  are  unjust  and  tyrannical,  neither  was  God 
ever  so  much  an  enemy  to  mankind,  as  to  enjoin  a 
necessity  of  submitting  to  them ;  nor  was  there 

12 


266  FROM  A  DEFENCE  OF 

ever  any  people  so  destitute  of  all  sense,  and  sunk 
into  such  a  depth  of  despair,  as  to  impose  so  cruel 
a  law  upon  themselves  and  their  posterity 

If  one  should  consider  attentively  the  coun- 
tenance of  a  man,  and  inquire  after  whose  image 
so  noble  a  creature  were  framed,  would  not  any 
one  that  heard  him  presently  make  answer,  that 
he  was  made  after  the  image  of  God  himself? 
Being  therefore  peculiarly  God's  own,  and  con- 
sequently things  that  are  to  be  given  to  him,  we 
are  entirely  free  by  nature,  and  cannot  without 
the  greatest  sacrilege  imaginable  be  reduced  into  a 
condition  of  slavery  to  any  man,  especially  to  a 
wicked,  unjust,  cruel  tyrant 

Every  good  emperor  acknowledged  that  the 
laws  of  the  empire,  and  the  authority  of  the  sen- 
ate, was  above  himself;  and  the  same  principle 
and  notion  of  government  has  obtained  all  along 
in  civilized  nations.  Pindar,  as  he  is  cited  by 
Herodotus,  calls  the  law  Travrcav  /SaertXea,  king  over 
all.  Orpheus  in  his  hymns  calls  it  the  king  both 
of  gods  and  men  :  and  he  gives  the  reason  why  it  is 
so ;  because,  says  he,  it  is  that  that  sits  at  the  helm 
of  all  human  affairs.  Plato  in  his  book  De  Legi- 
bus  calls  it  TO  icparovv  ev  ry  TroXet :  that  that  ought 
to  have  the  greatest  sway  in  the  commonwealth. 
In  his  epistles  he  commends  that  form  of  govern- 
ment in  which  the  law  is  made  lord  and  master, 
and  no  scope  given  to  any  man  to  tyrannize  over 
the  laws.  Aristotle  is  of  the  same  opinion  in  his 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  267 

Politics ;  and  so  is  Cicero  in  his  book  De  Legibus, 
that  the  laws  ought  to  govern  the  magistrates,  as 
they  do  the  people.  The  law  therefore  having 
always  been  accounted  the  highest  power  on  earth, 
by  the  judgment  of  the  most  learned  and  wise  men 
that  ever  were,  and  by  the  constitutions  of  the 
best-ordered  states ;  and  it  being  very  certain  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  is  neither  contrary  to 
reason,  nor  the  law  of  nations,  that  man  is  truly 
and  properly  subject  to  the  higher  powers,  who 
obeys  the  law  and  the  magistrates,  so  far  as  they 
govern  according  to  law.  So  that  St.  Paul  does 
not  only  command  the  people,  but  princes  them- 
selves, to  be  in  subjection ;  who  are  not  above  the 
laws,  but  bound  by  them :  "  for  there  is  no  power 
but  of  God":  that  is,  no  form,  no  lawful  constitu- 
tion of  any  government.  The  most  ancient  laws 
that  are  known  to  us  were  formerly  ascribed  to 
God  as  their  author.  For  the  law,  says  Cicero  in 
his  Philippics,  is  no  other  than  a  rule  of  well- 
grounded  reason,  derived  from  God  himself,  enjoin- 
ing whatever  is  just  and  right,  and  forbidding  the 
contrary.  So  that  the  institution  of  magistracy  is 
jure  Divino,  and  the  end  of  it  is,  that  mankind 
might  live  under  certain  laws,  and  be  governed  by 
them.  But  what  particular  form  of  government 
each  nation  would  live  under,  and  what  persons 
should  be  intrusted  with  the  magistracy,  without 

doubt,  was  left  to  the  choice  of  each  nation 

Do  you  pretend  that  kings  are  infallible?     If 


268  FROM  A   DEFENCE  OF 

you  do  not,  why  do  you  make  them  omnipotent  ? 
And  how  comes  it  to  pass,  that  an  unlimited  power 
in  one  man  should  be  accounted  less  destructive 
to  temporal  things  than  it  is  to  ecclesiastical  ?  Or 
do  you  think  that  God  takes  no  care  at  all  of  civil 
affairs  ?  If  he  takes  none  himself,  I  am  sure  he 
does  not  forbid  us  to  take  care  which  way  they  go  ; 
if  he  does  take  any  care  about  them,  certainly  he 
would  have  the  same  reformation  made  in  the  com- 
monwealth, that  he  would  have  made  in  the  Church, 
especially  it  being  obvious  to  every  man's  expe- 
rience, that  infallibility  and  omnipotency  being 
arrogated  to  one  man,  are  equally  mischievous  in 
both.  God  has  not  so  modelled  the  government 
of  the  world  as  to  make  it  the  duty  of  any  civil 
community  to  submit  to  the  cruelties  of  tyrants, 
and  yet  to  leave  the  Church  at  liberty  to  free 
themselves  from  slavery  and  tyranny ;  nay,  rather 
quite  contrary,  he  has  put  no  arms  into  the  Church's 
hand  but  those  of  patience  and  innocence,  prayer 
and  ecclesiastical  discipline  ;  but  in  the  common- 
wealth, all  the  magistracy  are  by  him  entrusted 
with  the  preservation  and  execution  of  the  laws, 
with  the  power  of  punishing  and  revenging :  he 

has  put  the  sword  into  their  hands 

Though  I  am  of  opinion,  Salmasius,  and  always 
was,  that  the  law  of  God  does  exactly  agree  with 
the  law  of  nature ;  so  that,  having  shown  what  the 
law  of  God  is,  with  respect  to  princes,  and  what 
the  practice  has  been  of  the  people  of  God,  both 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  269 

Jews  and  Christians,  I  have  at  the  same  time,  and 
by  the  same  discourse,  made  appear  what  is  most 
agreeable  to  the  law  of  nature ;  yet  because  you 
pretend  "to  confute  us  most  powerfully  by  the 
law  of  nature,"  I  will  be  content  to  admit  that  to 
be  necessary,  which  before  I  had  thought  would  be 
superfluous,  that  in  this  chapter  I  may  demonstrate, 
that  nothing  is  more  suitable  to  the  law  of  nature, 
than  that  punishment  be  inflicted  upon  tyrants. 
Which  if  I  do  not  evince,  I  will  then  agree  with 
you,  that  likewise  by  the  law  of  God  they  are  ex- 
empt. I  do  not  purpose  to  frame  a  long  discourse 
of  nature  in  general,  and  the  original  of  civil 
societies ;  that  argument  has  been  largely  handled 
by  many  learned  men,  both  Greek  and  Latin.  But 
I  shall  endeavor  to  be  as  short  as  may  be  ;  and  my 
design  is  not  so  much  to  confute  you,  (who  would 
willingly  have  spared  this  pains,)  as  to  show  that 
you  confute  yourself,  and  destroy  your  own  po- 
sitions. I  will  begin  with  that  first  position,  which 
you  lay  down  as  a  fundamental,  and  that  shall  be 
the  groundwork  of  my  ensuing  discourse.  "  The 
law  of-  nature,"  say  you,  "  is  a  principle  imprinted 
on  all  men's  minds,  to  regard  the  good  of  all  man- 
kind, considering  men  as  united  together  in  socie- 
ties. But  this  innate  principle  cannot  procure  that 
common  good,  unless,  as  there  are  people  that 
must  be  governed,  so  that  very  principle  ascertain 
who  shall  govern  them."  To  wit,  lest  the  stronger 
oppress  the  weaker,  and  those  persons,  who,  for 


270  FROM  A  DEFENCE  OF 

their  mutual  safety  and  protection  have  united 
themselves  together,  should  be  disunited  and 
divided  by  injury  and  violence,  and  reduced  to  a 
bestial  savage  life  again.  This  I  suppose  is  what 
you  mean.  "  Out  of  the  number  of  those  that 
united  into  one  body,"  you  say,  "there  must 
needs  have  been  some  chosen,  who  'excelled  the 
rest  in  wisdom  and  valor ;  that  they,  either  by  force 
or  by  persuasion,  might  restrain  those  that  were 
refractory,  and  keep  them  within  due  bounds. 
Sometimes  it  would  so  fall  out,  that  one  single  per- 
son, whose  conduct  and  valor  was  extraordinary, 
might  be  able  to  do  this,  and  sometimes  more 
assisted  one  another  with  their  advice  and  counsel. 
But  since  it  is  impossible  that  any  one  man  should 
order  all  things  himself,  there  was  a  necessity  of  his 
consulting  with  others,  and  taking  some  into  part 
of  the  government  with  himself;  so  that  whether 
a  single  person  reign,  or  whether  the  supreme 
power  reside  in  the  body  of  the  people,  since  it  is 
impossible  that  all  should  administer  the  aifairs  of 
the  commonwealth,  or  that  any  one  man  should  do 
all,  the  government  does  always  lie  upon  the 
shoulders  of  many."  And  afterwards  you  say, 
"  both  forms  of  government,  whether  by  many  or 
a  few,  or  by  a  single  person,  are  equally  according 
to  the  law  of  nature,  viz.,  That  it  is  impossible  for 
any  single  person  so  to  govern  alone,  as  not  to 
admit  others  into  a  share  of  the  government  with 
himself."  Though  I  might  have  taken  all  this  out 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.     271 

of  the  third  book  of  Aristotle's  Politics,  I  chose 
rather  to  transcribe  it  out  of  your  own  book ;  for 
you  stole  it  from  him  as  Prometheus  did  fire  from 
Jupiter,  to  the  ruin  of  monarchy,  and  overthrow 
of  yourself  and  your  own  opinion.  For  inquire  as 
diligently  as  you  can  for  your  life  into  the  law  of 
nature,  as  you  have  described  it,  you  will  not  find 
the  least  footstep  in  it  of  kingly  power,  as  you 
explain  it.  "  The  law  of  nature,"  say  you,  "  in 
ordering  who  should  govern  others,  respected  the 
universal  good  of  all  mankind."  It  did  not  then 
regard  the  private  good  of  any  particular  person, 
not  of  a  prince  ;  so  that  the  king  is  for  the  people, 
and  consequently  the  people  superior  to  him : 
which  being  allowed,  it  is  impossible  that  princes 
should  have  any  right  to  oppress  or  enslave  the 
people ;  that  the  inferior  should  have  right  to 
tyrannize  over  the  superior.  So  that  since  kings 
cannot  pretend  to  any  right  to  do  mischief,  the 
right  of  the  people  must  be  acknowledged,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  nature,  to  be  superior  to  that  of 
princes ;  and  therefore,  by  the  same  right,  that 
before  kingship  was  known,  men  united  their 
strength  and  counsels  for  their  mutual  safety  and 
defence  ;  by  the  same  right,  that  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  all  men's  liberty,  peace,  and  safety,  they 
appointed  one  or  more  to  govern  the  rest ;  by  the 
same  right  they  may  depose  those  very  persons 
whom  for  their  valor  or  wisdom  they  advanced  to 
the  government,  or  any  others  that  rule  disorderly, 


272  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

if  they  find  them,  by  reason  of  their  slothfulness, 
folly,  or  impiety,  unfit  for  government:  since 
nature  does  not  regard  the  good  of  one,  or  of  a 
few,  but  of  all  in  general.  For  what  sort  of  per- 
sons were  they  whom  you  suppose  to  have  been 
chosen  ?  You  say,  "  They  were  such  as  excelled 
in  courage  and  conduct,"  to  wit,  such  as  by  nature 
seemed  fittest  for  government ;  who  by  reason  of 
their  excellent  wisdom  and  valor  were  enabled  to 
undertake  so  great  a  charge.  The  consequence  of 
this  I  take  to  be,  that  right  of  succession  is  not  by 
the  law  of  nature ;  that  no  man  by  the  law  of  na- 
ture has  right  to  be  king,  unless  he  excel  all  others 
in  wisdom  and  courage ;  that  all  such  as  reign  and 
want  these  qualifications,  are  advanced  to  the  gov- 
ernment by  force  or  faction,  have  no  right  by  the 
law  of  nature  to  be  what  they  are,  but  ought 
rather  to  be  slaves  than  princes.  For  nature  ap- 
points that  wise  men  should  govern  fools,  not  that 
wicked  men  should  rule  over  good  men,  fools  over 
wise  men ;  and  consequently  they  that  take  the 
government  out  of  such  men's  hands,  act  according 
to  the  law  of  nature.  To  what  end  nature  directs 
wise  men  should  bear  the  rule,  you  shall  hear  in 
your  own  words :  viz.  "  That  by  force  or  by  per- 
suasion, they  may  keep  such  as  are  unruly  within 
due  bounds."  But  how  should  he  keep  others 
within  the  bounds  of  their  duty,  that  neglects,  or 
is  ignorant  of,  or  wilfully  acts  contrary  to  his  own  ? 
Allege  now,  if  you  can,  any  dictate  of  nature  by 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  273 

which  we  are  enjoined  to  neglect  the  wise  institu- 
tions of  this  law  of  nature,  and  have  no  regard  to 
them  in  civil  and  public  concerns,  when  we  see 
what  great  and  admirable  things  nature  herself 
effects  in  things  that  are  inanimate  and  void  of 
sense,  rather  than  lose  her  end.  Produce  any 
rule  of  nature,  or  natural  justice,  by  which  inferior 
criminals  ought  to  be  punished,  but  kings  and 
princes  to  go  unpunished ;  and  not  only  so,  but 
though  guilty  of  the  greatest  crimes  imaginable, 
be  had  in  reverence  and  almost  adored.  You 
agree,  that  "  all  forms  of  government,  whether  by 
many,  or  few,  or  by  a  single  person,  are  equally 
agreeable  to  the  law  of  nature."  So  that  the  per- 
son of  a  king  is  not  by  the  law  of  nature  more 
sacred  than  a  senate  of  nobles,  or  magistrates, 
chosen  from  amongst  the  common  people,  who  you 
grant  may  be  punished,  and  ought  to  be  if  they 
offend  ;  and  consequently,  kings  ought  to  be  so 
too,  who  are  appointed  to  rule  for  the  very  same 
end  and  purpose  that  other  magistrates  are.  "  For," 
say  you,  "  nature  does  not  allow  any  single  person 
to  rule  so  entirely,  as  not  to  have  partners  in  the 
government."  It  does  not  therefore  allow  of  a 
monarch;  it  does  not  allow  one  single  person  to 
rule  so,  as  that  all  others  should  be  in  a  slavish 

subjection  to  his  commands  only 

It  is  not  to  the  purpose  for  us  here  to  dispute 
which  form  of  government  is  best,  by  one  single 
person,  or  by  many.     I  confess  many  eminent  and 
12*  B 


274  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

famous  men  have  extolled  monarchy ;  but  it  has 
always  been  upon  this  supposition,  that  the  prince 
was  a  very  excellent  person,  and  one  that  of  all 
others  deserved  best  to  reign  ;  without  which  sup- 
position, no  form  of  government  can  be  so  prone 
to  tyranny  as  monarchy  is.  And  whereas  you 
resemble  a  monarchy  to  the  government  of  the 
world  by  one  Divine  Being,  I  pray  answer  me, 
whether  you  think  that  any  other  can  deserve  to 
be  invested  with  a  power  here  on  earth,  that  shall 
resemble  his  power  that  governs  the  world,  except 
such  a  person  as  does  infinitely  excel  all  other 
men,  and  both  for  wisdom  and  goodness  in  some 
measure  resemble  the  Deity  ?  and  such  a  person, 
in  my  opinion,  none  can  be  but  the  Son  of  God 
himself.  .... 

What  principles,  what  law,  what  religion  ever 
taught  men  rather  to  consult  their  ease,  to  save 
their  money,  their  blood,  nay,  their  lives  them- 
selves, than  to  oppose  an  enemy  with  force  ?  for  I 
make  no  difference  between  a  foreign  enemy  and 
another,  since  both  are  equally  dangerous  and 
destructive  to  the  good  of  the  whole  nation.  The 
people  of  Israel  saw  very  well,  that  they  could  not 
possibly  punish  the  Benjamites  for  murdering  the 
Levite's  wife,  without  the  loss  of  many  men's 
lives :  and  did  that  induce  them  to  sit  still  ?  Was 
that  accounted  a  sufficient  argument  why  they 
should  abstain  from  war,  from  a  very  bloody  civil 
war  ?  Did  they  therefore  suffer  the  death  of  one 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  275 

poor  woman  to  be  unrevenged  ?  Certainly  if  na- 
ture teaches  us  rather  to  endure  the  government 
of  a  king,  though  he  be  never  so  bad,  than  to 
endanger  the  lives  of  a  great  many  men  in  the 
recovery  of  our  liberty ;  it  must  teach  us  likewise 
not  only  to  endure  a  kingly  government,  which  is 
the  only  one  that  you  argue  ought  to  be  submitted 
to,  but  even  an  aristocracy  and  a  democracy :  nay, 
and  sometimes  it  will  persuade  us,  to  submit  to  a 
multitude  of  highwaymen,  and  to  slaves  that  mu- 
tiny. Fulvius  and  Rupilius,  if  your  principles  had 
been  received  in  their  days,  must  not  have  engaged 
in  the  servile  war  (as  their  writers  call  it)  after  the 
Praetorian  armies  were  slain ;  Crassus  must  not 
have  marched  against  Spartacus,  after  the  rebels 
had  destroyed  one  Roman  army,  and  spoiled  their 
tents ;  nor  must  Pompey  have  undertaken  the 
Piratic  war.  But  the  state  of  Rome  must  have 
pursued  the  dictates  of  nature,  and  must  have  sub- 
mitted to  their  own  slaves,  or  to  the  pirates,  rather 
than  run  the  hazard  of  losing  some  men's  lives. 
You  do  not  prove  at  all,  that  nature  has  imprinted 
any  such  notion  as  this  of  yours  on  the  minds  of 
men :  and  yet  you  cannot  forbear  boding  us  ill 
luck,  and  denouncing  the  wrath  of  God  against  us, 
(which  may  heaven  divert,  and  inflict  it  upon 
yourself,  and  all  such  prognosticates  as  you  !)  who 
have  punished  as  he  deserved,  one  that  had  the 
name  of  our  king,  but  was  in  fact  our  implacable 
enemy ;  and  we  have  made  atonement  for  the 


276  FROM  A   DEFENCE  OF 

death  of  so  many  of  our  countrymen,  as  our  civil 
wars  have  occasioned,  by  shedding  his  blood,  that 

was  the  author  and  cause  of  them 

After  having  discoursed  upon  the  law  of  God 
and  of  nature,  and  handled  both  so  untowardly, 
that  you  have  got  nothing  by  the  bargain  but  a 
deserved  reproach  of  ignorance  and  knavery,  I 
cannot  apprehend  what  you  can  have  further  to 
allege  in  defence  of  your  royal  cause,  but  mere 
trifles.  I  for  my  part  hope  I  have  given  satisfac- 
tion already  to  all  good  and  learned  men,  and  done 
this  noble  cause  right,  should  I  break  off  here ; 
yet  lest  I  should  seem  to  any  to  decline  your  variety 
of  arguing  and  ingenuity,  rather  than  your  im- 
moderate impertinence  and  tittle-tattle,  I  will 
follow  you  wherever  you  have  a  mind  to  go ;  but 
with  such  brevity  as  shall  make  it  appear,  that 
after  having  performed  whatever  the  necessary 
defence  of  the  cause  required,  if  not  what  the  dig- 
nity of  it  merited,  I  now  do  but  comply  with  some 
men's  expectation,  if  not  their  curiosity.  "Now," 
say  you,  "  I  shall  allege  other  and  greater  argu- 
ments." What !  greater  arguments  than  what  the 
law  of  God  and  nature  afforded  ?  Help,  Lucina  ! 
the  mountain  Salmasius  is  in  labor !  It  is  not  for 
nothing  that  he  has  got  a  she-husband.  Mortals, 
expect  some  extraordinary  birth.  "  If  he  that  is, 
and  is  called  a  king,  might  be  accused  before  any 
other  power,  that  power  must  of  necessity  be  great- 
er than  that  of  the  king ;  and  if  so,  then  must  that 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  277 

power  be  indeed  the  kingly  power,  and  ought  to 
have  the  name  of  it :  for  a  kingly  power  is  thus 
defined;  to  wit,  the  supreme  power  in  the  state 
residing  in  a  single  person,  and  which  has  no 
superior."  O  ridiculous  birth  !  a  mouse  crept  out 
of  the  mountain  !  help,  grammarians  !  one  of  your 
number  is  in  danger  of  perishing !  the  law  of  God 
and  of  nature  are  safe  ;  but  Salmasius's  dictionary 
is  undone.  What  if  I  should  answer  you  thus? 
That  words  ought  to  give  place  to  things ;  that  we, 
having  taken  away  kingly  government  itself,  do 
not  think  ourselves  concerned  about  its  name  and 
definition ;  let  others  look  to  that,  who  are  in  love 
with  kings :  we  are  contented  with  the  enjoyment 
of  our  liberty;  such  an  answer  would  be  good 
enough  for  you.  But  to  let  you  see  that  I  deal 
fairly  with  you  throughout,  I  will  answer  you,  not 
only  from  my  own,  but  from  the  opinion  of  very 
wise  and  good  men,  who  have  thought  that  the 
name  and  power  of  a  king  are  very  consistent  with 
a  power  in  the  people  and  the  law  superior  to  that 
of  the  king  himself.  In  the  first  place,  Lycurgus, 
a  man  very  eminent  for  wisdom,  designing,  as 
Plato  says,  to  secure  a  kingly  government  as  well 
as  it  was  possible,  could  find  no  better  expedient  to 
preserve  it,  than  by  making  the  power  of  the  sen- 
ate, and  of  the  Ephori,  that  is,  the  power  of  the 
people,  superior  to  it.  Theseus,  in  Euripides,  king 
of  Athens,  was  of  the  same  opinion ;  for  he  to  his 
great  honor  restored  the  people  to  their  liberty, 


278  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

and  advanced  the  power  of  the  people  above  that 
of  the  king,  and  yet  left  the  regal  power  in  that 
city  to  his  posterity.  Whence  Euripides,  in  his 
play  called  "  The  Suppliants,"  introduces  him 
speaking  on  this  manner:  "I  have  advanced  the 
people  themselves  into  the  throne,  having  freed 
the  city  from  slavery,  and  admitted  the  people  to 
a  share  in  the  government,  by  giving  them  an 
equal  right  of  suffrage."  And  in  another  place  to 
the  herald  of  Thebes :  "  In  the  first  place,"  says 
he,  "  you  begin  your  speech,  friend,  with  a  thing 
that  is  not  true,  in  styling  me  a  monarch :  for  this 
city  is  not  governed  by  a  single  person,  but  is  a 
free  state ;  the  people  reigns  here."  These  were 
his  words,  when  at  the  same  time  he  was  both 
called  and  really  was  king  there.  The  divine 
Plato  likewise,  in  his  eighth  epistle  :  "  Lycurgus," 
says  he,  "  introduced  the  power  of  the  senate  and 
of  the  Ephori,  a  thing  very  preservative  of  kingly 
government,  which  by  this  means  has  honorably 
flourished  for  so  many  ages,  because  the  law  in 
effect  was  made  king. "  Now  the  law  cannot  be 
king,  unless  there  be  some,  who,  if  there  should  be 
occasion,  may  put  the  law  in  execution  against  the 
king.  A  kingly  government  so  bounded  and  lim- 
ited he  himself  commends  to  the  Sicilians :  "  Let 
the  people  enjoy  their  liberty  under  a  kingly  gov- 
ernment ;  let  the  king  himself  be  accountable :  let 
the  law  take  place  even  against  kings  themselves, 
if  they  act  contrary  to  law."  Aristotle  likewise, 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  279 

in  the  third  book  of  his  Politics :  "  Of  all  king- 
doms," says  he,  "  that  are  governed  by  laws,  that 
of  the  Lacedemonians  seems  to  be  most  truly  and 
properly  so."  And  he  says,  all  forms  of  kingly 
governments  are  according  to  settled  and  estab- 
lished laws  ;  but  one,  which  he  calls  Trapftaa-iXeia, 
or  Absolute  Monarchy,  which  he  does  not  mention 
ever  to  have  obtained  in  any  nation.  So  that 
Aristotle  thought  such  a  kingdom  as  that  of  the 
Lacedemonians  was  to  be  and  deserve  the  name  of 
a  kingdom  more  properly  than  any  other ;  and  con- 
sequently that  a  king,  though  subordinate  to  his 
own  people,  was  nevertheless  actually  a  king,  and 
properly  so  called.  Now  since  so  many  and  so 
great  authors  assert,  that  a  kingly  government 
both  in  name  and  thing  may  very  well  subsist  even 
where  the  people,  though  they  do  not  ordinarily 
exercise  the  supreme  power,  yet  have  it  actually 
residing  in  them,  and  exercise  it  upon  occasion ; 
be  not  you  of  so  mean  a  soul  as  to  fear  the  down- 
fall of  grammar,  and  the  confusion  of  the  significa- 
tion of  words  to  that  degree,  as  to  betray  the  liberty 
of  mankind  and  the  state,  rather  than  your  glossary 

should  not  hold  water 

Let  this  stand  then  as  a  settled  maxim  of  the 
law  of  nature,  never  to  be  shaken  by  any  artifices 
of  flatterers,  that  the  senate,  or  the  people,  are 
superior  to  kings,  be  they  good  or  bad :  which  is 
but  what  you  yourself  do  in  effect  confess,  when 
you  tell  us,  that  the  authority  of  kings  was  derived 


280  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

from  the  people.  For  that  power,  which  they 
transferred  to  princes,  doth  yet  naturally,  or,  as  I 
may  say,  virtually  reside  in  themselves  notwith- 
standing :  for  so  natural  causes,  that  produce  any 
effect  by  a  certain  eniinency  of  operation,  do  always 
retain  more  of  their  own  virtue  and  energy  than 
they  impart;  nor  do  they,  by  communicating  to 
others,  exhaust  themselves.  You  see,  the  closer 
we  keep  to  nature,  the  more  evidently  does  the 
people's  power  appear  to  be  above  that  of  the 
prince.  And  this  is  likewise  certain,  that  the 
people  do  not  freely,  and  of  choice,  settle  the  gov- 
ernment in  the  king  absolutely,  so  as  to  give  him 
a  propriety  in  it,  nor  by  nature  can  do  so :  but 
only  for  the  public  safety  and  liberty,  which,  when 
the  king  ceases  to  take  care  of,  then  the  people  in 
effect  have  given  him  nothing  at  all :  for  nature 
says,  the  people  gave  it  him  to  a  particular  end  and 
purpose ;  which  end,  if  neither  nature  nor  the 
people  can  attain,  the  people's  gift  becomes  no 
more  valid  than  any  other  void  covenant  or  agree- 
ment. These  reasons  prove  very  fully,  that  the 
people  are  superior  to  the  king;  and  so  your 
"greatest  and  most  convincing  argument,  that  a 
king  cannot,  be  judged  by  his  people,  because  he 
has  no  peer  in  his  kingdom,"  nor  any  superior, 

falls  to  the  ground 

Since,  therefore,  by  our  law,  as  appears  by  that 
old  book  called  "  The  Mirror,"  the  king  has  his 
peers,  who  in  Parliament  have  cognizance  of 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  281 

wrongs  done  by  the  king  to  any  of  his  people  ;  and 
since  it  is  notoriously  known  that  the  meanest  man 
in  the  kingdom  may  even  in  inferior  courts  have 
the  benefit  of  the  law  against  the  king  himself,  in 
case  of  any  injury  or  wrong  sustained ;  how  much 
more  consonant  to  justice,  how  much  more  neces- 
sary is  it  that  in  case  the  king  oppress  all  his 
people,  there  should  be  such  as  have  authority  not 
only  to  restrain  him  and  keep  him  within  bounds, 
but  to  judge  and  punish  him !  for  that  government 
must  needs  be  very  ill,  and  most  ridiculously  con- 
stituted, in  which  remedy  is  provided  in  case  of 
little  injuries  done  by  the  prince  to  private  persons, 
and  no  remedy,  no  redress  for  greater,  no  care 
taken  for  the  safety  of  the  whole ;  no  provision 
made  to  the  contrary,  but  that  the  king  may,  with- 
out any  law,  ruin  all  his  subjects,  when  at  the 
same  time  he  cannot  by  law  so  much  as  hurt  any 
one  of  them.  And  since  I  have  shown  that  it  is 
neither  good  manners,  nor  expedient,  that  the 
lords  should  be  the  king's  judges ;  it  follows,  that 
the  power  of  judicature  in  that  case  does  wholly, 
and  by  very  good  right,  belong  to  the  commons, 
who  are  both  peers  of  the  realm  and  barons,  and 
have  the  power  and  authority  of  all  the  people 
committed  to  them.  For  since  (as  we  find  it  ex- 
pressly in  our  written  law,  which  I  have  already 
cited)  the  commons  together  with  the  king  made 
a  good  Parliament  without  either  lords  or  bishops, 
because  before  either  lords  or  bishops  had  a  being, 


282  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

kings  held  Parliaments  with  their  commons  only ; 
by  the  very  same  reason  the  commons  apart  must 
have  the  sovereign  power  without  the  king,  and  a 
power  of  judging  the  king  himself;  because  before 
there  ever  was  a  king,  they,  in  the  name  of  the 
whole  body  of  the  nation,  held  councils  and  Parlia- 
ments, had  the  power  of  judicature,  made  laws, 
and  made  the  kings  themselves,  not  to  lord  it  over 
the  people,  but  to  administer  their  public  affairs. 
Whom  if  the  king,  instead  of  so  doing,  shall  en- 
deavor to  injure  and  oppress,  our  law  pronounces 
him  from  time  forward  not  so  much  as  to  retain 
the  name  of  a  king,  to  be  no  such  thing  as  a  king : 
and  if  he  be  no  king,  what  need  we  trouble  our- 
selves to  find  out  peers  for  him  ?  For  being  then 
by  all  good  men  adjudged  to  be  a  tyrant,  there  are 
none  but  who  are  peers  good  enough  for  him,  and 
proper  enough  to  pronounce  sentence  of  death  up- 
on him  judicially.  These  things  being  so,  I  think  I 
have  sufficiently  proved  what  I  undertook  by  many 
authorities,  and  written  laws ;  to  wit,  that  since  the 
commons  have  authority  by  very  good  right  to  try 
the  king,  and  since  they  have  actually  tried  him, 
and  put  him  to  death,  for  the  mischief  he  hath  done 
both  in  church  and  state,  and  without  all  hope  of 
amendment,  they  have  done  nothing  therein  but 
what  was  just  and  regular,  for  the  interest  of  the 
state,  in  discharging  of  their  trust,  becoming  their 
dignity,  and  according  to  the  laws  of  the  land. 
And  I  cannot  upon  this  occasion  but  congratulate 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  283 

myself  with  the  honor  of  having  had  such  ances- 
tors, who  founded  this  government  with  no  less 
prudence,  and  in  as  much  liberty  as  the  most 
worthy  of  the  ancient  Romans  or  Grecians  ever 
founded  any  of  theirs :  and  they  must  needs,  if  they 
have  any  knowledge  of  our  affairs,  rejoice  over 
their  posterity,  who,  when  they  were  almost  reduced 
to  slavery,  yet  with  so  much  wisdom  and  courage 
vindicated  and  asserted  the  state,  which  they  so 
wisely  founded  upon  so  much  liberty,  from  the 

unruly  government  of  a  king 

But  who  secluded  those  ill-affected  members? 
"  The  English  army,"  you  say :  so  that  it  was  not 
an  army  of  foreigners,  but  of  most  valiant,  and 
faithful,  honest  natives,  whose  officers  for  the  most 
part  were  members  of  Parliament ;  and  whom 
those  good  secluded  members  would  have  secluded 
their  country,  and  banished  into  Ireland ;  while,  in 
the  mean  time,  the  Scots,  whose  alliance  began  to 
be  doubtful,  had  very  considerable  forces  in  four 
of  our  northern  counties,  and  kept  garrisons  in  the 
best  towns  of  those  parts,  and  had  the  king  himself 
in  custody ;  whilst  they  likewise  encouraged  the 
tumultuating  of  those  of  their  own  faction,  who 
did  more  than  threaten  the  Parliament,  both  in 
city  and  country,  and  through  whose  means  not 
only  a  civil,  but  a  war  with  Scotland  too,  shortly 
after  brake  out.  If  it  has  been  always  counted 
praiseworthy  in  private  men  to  assist  the  state  and 
promote  the  public  good,  whether  by  advice  or 


284  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

action,  our  army  sure  was  in  no  fault,  who,  being 
ordered  by  the  Parliament  to  come  to  town,  obeyed 
and  came,  and  when  they  were  come,  quelled  with 
ease  the  faction  and  uproar  of  the  king's  party,  who 
sometimes  threatened  the  House  itself.  For  things 
were  brought  to  that  pass,  that  of  necessity  either 
we  must  be  run  down  by  them,  or  they  by  us. 
They  had  on  their  side  most  of  the  shopkeepers 
and  handicraftsmen  of  London,  and  generally  those 
of  the  ministers,  that  were  most  factious.  On  our 
side  was  the  army,  whose  fidelity,  moderation,  and 
courage  were  sufficiently  known.  It  being  in  our 
power  by  their  means  to  retain  our  liberty,  our 
state,  our  common  safety,  do  you  think  we  had  not 
been  fools  to  have  lost  all  by  our  negligence  and 
folly  ?  They  who  had  had  places  of  command  in 
the  king's  army,  after  their  party  were  subdued, 
had  laid  down  their  arms  indeed  against  their  wills, 
but  continued  enemies  to  us  in  their  hearts :  and 
they  flocked  to  town,  and  were  here  watching  all 
opportunities  of  renewing  the  war.  With  these 
men,  though  they  were  the  greatest  enemies  they 
had  in  the  world,  and  thirsted  after  their  blood,  did 
the  Presbyterians,  because  they  were  not  permitted 
to  exercise  a  civil  as  well  as  an  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction over  all  others,  hold  secret  correspondence, 
and  took  measures  very  unworthy  of  what  they 
had  formerly  both  said  and  done ;  and  they  came 
to  that  spleen  at  last,  that  they  would  rather 
enthral  themselves  to  the  king  again,  than  admit 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  285 

their  own  brethren  to  share  in  their  liberty,  which 
they  likewise  had  purchased  at  the  price  of  their 
own  blood;  they  chose  rather  to  be  lorded  over 
once  more  by  a  tyrant,  polluted  with  the  blood  of 
so  many  of  his  own  subjects,  and  who  was  enraged, 
and  breathed  out  nothing  but  revenge  against  those 
of  them  that  were  left,  than  endure  their  brethren 
and  friends  to  be  upon  the  square  with  them.  The 
Independents,  as  they  are  called,  were  the  only 
men  that,  from  first  to  last,  kept  to  their  point,  and 
knew  what  use  to  make  of  their  victory.  They 
refused  (and  wisely,  in  my  opinion)  to  make  him 
king  again,  being  then  an  enemy,  who,  when  he 
was  their  king,  had  made  himself  their  enemy: 
nor  were  they  ever  the  less  averse  to  a  peace,  but 
they  very  prudently  dreaded  a  new  war,  or  a  per- 
petual slavery  under  the  name  of  a  peace.  To 
load  our  army  with  the  more  reproaches,  you  begin 
a  silly  confused  narrative  of  our  affairs ;  in  which, 
though  I  find  many  things  false,  many  things 
frivolous,  many  things  laid  to  our  charge  for  which 
we  rather  merit ;  yet  I  think,  it  will  be  to  no  pur- 
pose for  me  to  write  a  true  relation  in  answer  to 

your  false  one 

If  any  man  should  question  whether  you  are  an 
honest  man  or  a  knave,  let  him  read  these  follow- 
ing lines  of  yours :  "It  is  time  to  explain  whence 
and  at  what  time  this  sect  [Independents]  of  ene- 
mies to  kingship  first  began.  Why  truly  these  rare 
Puritans  began  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  to  crawl 


286  FROM  A   DEFENCE  OF 

out  of  hell,  and  disturb  not  only  the  Church,  but 
the  state  likewise ;  for  they  are  no  less  plagues  to 
the  latter  than  to  the  former."  Now  your  very 
speech  bewrays  you  to  be  a  right  Balaam;  for 
where  you  designed  to  spit  out  the  most  bitter 
poison  you  could,  there  unwittingly  and  against 
your  will  you  have  pronounced  a  blessing.  For  it 
is  notoriously  known  all  over  England,  that  if  any 
endeavored  to  follow  the  example  of  those  Churches, 
whether  in  France  or  Germany,  which  they  ac- 
counted best  reformed,  and  to  exercise  the  public 
worship  of  God  in  a  more  pure  manner,  which  our 
bishops  had  almost  universally  corrupted  with  their 
ceremonies  and  superstitions  ;  or,  if  any  seemed 
either  in  point  of  religion  or  morality  to  be  better 
than  others,  such  persons  were  by  the  favor  of 
episcopacy  termed  Puritans.  These  are  they  whose 
principles,  you  say,  are  so  opposite  to  kingship. 
Nor  are  they  the  only  persons.  "  Most  of  the  re- 
formed religion,  that  have  not  sucked  in  the  rest 
of  their  principles,  yet  seem  to  have  approved  of 
those  that  strike  at  kingly  government."  So  that 
while  you  inveigh  bitterly  against  the  Independents, 
and  endeavor  to  separate  them  from  Christ's  flock, 
with  the  same  breath  you  praise  them ;  and  those 
principles  which  almost  everywhere  you  affirm  to 
be  peculiar  to  the  Independents,  here  you  confess 
have  been  approved  of  by  most  of  the  reformed 

religion 

"  But,"  say  you,  "  there  were  added  to  those 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.     287 

judges,  that  were  made  choice  of  out  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  some  officers  of  the  army,  and  it  never 
was  known,  that  soldiers  had  any  right  to  try  a  sub- 
ject for  his  life."  I  will  silence  you  in  a  very  few 
words :  you  may  remember,  that  we  are  not  now 
discoursing  of  a  subject,  but  of  an  enemy ;  whom 
if  a  general  of  an  army,  after  he  has  taken  him 
prisoner,  resolves  to  despatch,  would  he  be  thought 
to  proceed  otherwise  than  according  to  custom  and 
martial  law,  if  he  himself  with  some  of  his  officers 
should  sit  upon  him,  and  try  and  condemn  him  ? 
An  enemy  to  a  state,  made  a  prisoner  of  war,  can- 
not be  looked  upon  to  be  so  much  as  a  member, 
much  less  a  king  in  that  state.  This  is  declared 
by  that  sacred  law  of  St.  Edward,  which  denies 
that  a  bad  king  is  a  king  at  all,  or  ought  to  be 
called  so.  Whereas  you  say,  it  was  "  not  the 
whole,  but  a  part  of  the  House  of  Commons,  that 
tried  and  condemned  the  king,"  I  give  you  this 
answer :  the  number  of  them,  who  gave  their  votes 
for  putting  the  king  to  death,  was  far  greater  than 
is  necessary,  according  to  the  custom  of  our  Parlia- 
ments, to  transact  the  greatest  affairs  of  the  king- 
dom, in  the  absence  of  the  rest;  who,  since  they 
were  absent  through  their  own  fault,  (for  to  revolt 
to  the  common  enemy  in  their  hearts  is  the  worst 
sort  of  absence,)  their  absence  ought  not  to  hinder 
the  rest  who  continued  faithful  to  the  cause  from 
preserving  the  state ;  which  when  it  was  in  a 
tottering  condition,  and  almost  quite  reduced  to 


288  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

slavery  and  utter  ruin,  the  whole  body  of  the 
people  had  at  first  committed  to  their  fidelity,  pru- 
dence, and  courage.  And  they  acted  their  parts 
like  men ;  they  set  themselves  in  opposition  to  the 
unruly  wilfulness,  the  rage,  the  secret  designs  of 
an  inveterate  and  exasperated  king ;  they  preferred 
the  common  liberty  and  safety  before  their  own ; 
they  outdid  all  former  Parliaments,  they  outdid 
all  their  ancestors,  in  conduct,  magnanimity,  and 
steadiness  to  their  cause.  Yet  these  very  men  did 
a  great  part  of  the  people  ungratefully  desert  in 
the  midst  of  their  undertaking,  though  they  had 
promised  them  all  fidelity,  all  the  help  and  assist- 
ance they  could  afford  them.  These  were  for 
slavery  and  peace,  with  sloth  and  luxury,  upon 
any  terms :  others  demanded  their  liberty,  nor 
would  accept  of  a  peace  that  was  not  sure  and 
honorable.  What  should  the  Parliament  do  in 
this  case  ?  Ought  they  to  have  defended  this  part 
of  the  people,  that  was  sound,  and  continued  faith- 
ful to  them  and  their  country,  or  to  have  sided 
with  those  that  deserted  both  ?  I  know  what  you 
will  say  they  ought  to  have  done.  You  are  not 
Eurylochus,  but  Elpenor,  a  miserable  enchanted 
beast,  a  filthy  swine,  accustomed  to  a  sordid  slavery, 
even  under  a  woman ;  so  that  you  have  not  the 
least  relish  of  true  magnanimity,  nor  consequently 
of  liberty,  which  is  the  effect  of  it:  you  would 
have  all  other  men  slaves,  because  you  find  in 
yourself  no  generous,  ingenuous  inclinations  ;  you 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  289 

say  nothing,   you   breathe  nothing,   but  what  is 

mean  and  servile 

Here  you  lament  his  being  condemned  as  a 
tyrant,  a  traitor,  and  a  murderer.  That  he  had 
no  wrong  done  him,  shall  now  be  made  appear. 
But  let  us  define  a  tyrant,  not  according  to  vulgar 
conceits,  but  the  judgment  of  Aristotle,  and  of  all 
learned  men.  He  is  a  tyrant  who  regards  his  own 
welfare  and  profit  only,  and  not  that  of  the  people. 
So  Aristotle  defines  one  in  the  tenth  book  of  his 
Ethics,  and  elsewhere ;  and  so  do  very  many 
others.  Whether  Charles  regarded  his  own  or  the 
people's  good,  these  few  things  of  many  that  I  shall 
but  touch  upon  will  evince.  When  his  rents  and 
other  public  revenues  of  the  crown  would  not 
defray  the  expenses  of  the  court,  he  laid  most 
heavy  taxes  upon  the  people  ;  and  when  they  were 
squandered  away,  he  invented  new  ones ;  not  for 
the  benefit,  honor,  or  defence  of  the  state,  but  that 
he  might  hoard  up,  or  lavish  out  in  one  house,  the 
riches  and  wealth,  not  of  one,  but  of  three  nations. 
When  at  this  rate  he  broke  loose,  and  acted  with- 
out any  color  of  law  to  warrant  his  proceedings, 
knowing  that  the  Parliament  was  the  only  thing 
that  could  give  him  check,  he  endeavored  either 
wholly  to  lay  aside  the  very  calling  of  Parliaments, 
or  calling  them  just  as  often,  and  no  oftener,  than 
to  serve  his  own  turn,  to  make  them  entirely  at 
his  devotion.  Which  bridle  when  he  had  cast  off 
himself,  he  put  another  bridle  upon  the  people  :  he 

13  8 


290  FROM  A   DEFENCE  OF 

put  garrisons  of  German  horse  and  Irish  foot  in 
many  towns  and  cities,  and  that  in  time  of  peace. 
Do  you  think  he  does  not  begin  to  look  like  a 
tyrant  ?  In  which  very  thing,  as  in  many  other 
particulars,  which  you  have  formerly  given  me 
occasion  to  instance,  though  you  scorn  to  have 
Charles  compared  with  so  cruel  a  tyrant  as  Nero, 
he  resembled  him  extremely  much.  For  Nero  like- 
wise often  threatened  to  take  away  the  senate. 
Besides,  he  bore  extreme  hard  upon  the  con- 
sciences of  good  men,  and  compelled  them  to  the 
use  of  ceremonies  and  superstitious  worship,  bor- 
rowed from  Popery,  and  by  him  reintroduced  into 
the  Church.  They  that  would  not  conform,  were 
imprisoned  or  banished.  He  made  war  upon  the 
Scots  twice  for  no  other  cause  than  that.  By  all 
these  actions  he  has  surely  deserved  the  name  of  a 
tyrant  once  over  at  least.  Now  I  will  tell  you 
why  the  word  traitor  was  put  into  his  indictment : 
when  he  assured  his  Parliament  by  promises,  by 
proclamations,  by  imprecations,  that  he  had  no 
design  against  the  state,  at  that  very  time  did  he 
list  Papists  in  Ireland,  he  sent  a  private  embassy 
to  the  king  of  Denmark  to  beg  assistance  from  him 
of  arms,  horses,  and  men,  expressly  against  the 
Parliament ;  and  was  endeavoring  to  raise  an  army 
first  in  England,  and  then  in  Scotland.  To  the 
English  he  promised  the  plunder  of  the  city  of 
London ;  to  the  Scots,  that  the  four  northern  coun- 
ties should  be  added  to  Scotland,  if  they  would  but 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  291 

help  him  to  get  rid  of  the  Parliament,  by  what 
means  soever.  These  projects  not  succeeding,  he 
sent  over  one  Dillon,  a  traitor,  into  Ireland,  with 
private  instructions  to  the  natives,  to  fall  suddenly 
upon  all  the  English  that  inhabited  there.  These 
are  the  most  remarkable  instances  of  his  treasons, 
not  taken  up  upon  hearsay  and  idle  reports,  but 
discovered  by  letters  under  his  own  hand  and  seal. 
And  finally  I  suppose  no  man  will  deny  that  he 
was  a  murderer,  by  whose  order  the  Irish  took 
arms,  and  put  to  death  with  most  exquisite  tor- 
ments above  a  hundred  thousand  English,  who 
lived  peaceably  by  them,  and  without  any  appre- 
hension of  danger  ;  and  who  raised  so  great  a  civil 
war  in  the  other  two  kingdoms.  Add  to  all  this, 
that  at  the  treaty  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  the  king 
openly  took  upon  himself  the  guilt  of  the  war,  and 
cleared  the '  Parliament  in  the  confession  he  made 
there,  which  is  publicly  known.  Thus  you  have 
in  short  why  King  Charles  was  adjudged  a  tyrant, 

a  traitor,  and  a  murderer 

It  would  never  have  entered  into  the  thoughts 
of  this  rascally  foreign  grammarian,  to  write  a  dis- 
course of  the  rights  of  the  crown  of  England, 
unless  both  Charles  Stuart,  now  in  banishment, 
and  tainted  with  his  father's  principles,  and  those 
profligate  tutors  that  he  has  along  with  him,  had 
industriously  suggested  to  him  what  they  would 
have  writ.  They  dictated  to  him,  "that  the 
whole  Parliament  were  liable  to  be  proceeded 


292  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

against  as  traitors,  because  they  declared,  without 
the  king's  assent,  all  them  to  be  traitors  who  had 
taken  up  arms  against  the  Parliament  of  England ; 
and  that  Parliaments  were  but  the  king's  vassals  ; 
that  the  oath  which  our  kings  take  at  their  corona- 
tion is  but  a  ceremony  " :  and  why  not  that  a  vassal 
too  ?  So  that  no  reverence  of  laws,  no  sacredness 
of  an  oath,  will  be  sufficient  to  protect  your  lives 
and  fortunes,  either  from  the  exorbitance  of  a 
furious,  or  the  revenge  of  an  exasperated  prince, 
who  has  been  so  instructed  from  his  cradle,  as  to 
think  laws,  religion,  nay,  and  oaths  themselves, 
ought  to  be  subject  to  his  will  and  pleasure.  How 
much  better  is  it,  and  more  becoming  yourselves, 
if  you  desire  riches,  liberty,  peace,  and  empire,  to 
obtain  them  assuredly  by  your  own  virtue,  indus- 
try, prudence,  and  valor,  than  to  long  after  and 
hope  for  them  in  vain  under  the  rule  of  a  king? 
They  who  are  of  opinion  that  these  things  cannot 
be  compassed  but  under  a  king,  and  a  lord,  it  can- 
not well  be  expressed  how  mean,  how  base,  I  do 
not  say,  how  unworthy,  thoughts  they  have  of 
themselves ;  for  in  effect,  what  do  they  other  than 
confess,  that  they  themselves  are  lazy,  weak,  sense- 
less, silly  persons,  and  framed  for  slavery  both  in 
body  and  mind  ?  And  indeed  all  manner  of  slavery- 
is  scandalous  and  disgraceful  to  a  freeborn  ingenu- 
ous person  ;  but  for  you,  after  you  have  recovered 
your  lost  liberty,  by  God's  assistance  and  your  own 
arms ;  after  the  performance  of  so  many  valiant 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  293 

exploits,  and  the  making  so  remarkable  an  example 
of  a  most  potent  king,  to  desire  to  return  again 
into  a  condition  of  bondage  and  slavery,  will  not 
only  be  scandalous  and  disgraceful,  but  an  impious 
and  wicked  thing ;  and  equal  to  that  of  the  Israel- 
ites, who  for  desiring  to  return  to  the  Egyptian 
slavery  were  so  severely  punished  for  that  sordid, 
slavish  temper  of  mind,  and  so  many  of  them 
destroyed  by  that  God  who  had  been  their  de- 
liverer  

And  now  I  think,  through  God's  assistance,  I 
have  finished  the  work  I  undertook,  to  wit,  the 
defence  of  the  noble  actions  of  my  countrymen  at 
home  and  abroad,  against  the  raging  and  envious 
madness  of  this  distracted  sophister ;  and  the  assert- 
ing of  the  common  rights  of  the  people  against  the 
unjust  domination  of  kings,  not  out  of  any  hatred 
to  kings,  but  tyrants:  nor  have  I  purposely  left 
unanswered  any  one  argument  alleged  by  my  ad- 
versary, nor  any  one  example  or  authority  quoted 
by  him,  that  seemed  to  have  any  force  in  it,  or  the 
least  color  of  an  argument.  Perhaps  I  have  been 
guilty  rather  of  the  other  extreme,  of  replying  to 
some  of  his  fooleries  and  trifles,  as  if  they  were 
solid  arguments,  and  thereby  may  seem  to  have 
attributed  more  to  them  than  they  deserved.  One 
thing  yet  remains  to  be  done,  which  perhaps  is  of 
the  greatest  concern  of  all,  and  that  is,  that  you, 
my  countrymen,  refute  this  adversary  of  yours 
yourselves,  which  I  do  not  see  any  other  means  of 


294  FROM  A   DEFENCE   OF 

your  affecting,  than  by  a  constant  endeavor  to  out- 
do all  men's  bad  words  by  your  own  good  deeds. 
When  you  labored  under  more  sorts  of  oppression 
than  one,  you  betook  yourselves  to  God  for  refuge, 
and  he  was  graciously  pleased  to  hear  your  most 
earnest  prayer  and  desires.  He  has  gloriously 
delivered  you,  the  first  of  nations,  from  the  two 
greatest  mischiefs  of  this  life,  and  most  pernicious 
to  virtue,  tyranny  and  superstition  ;  he  has  endued 
you  with  greatness  of  mind  to  be  the  first  of  man- 
kind, who  after  having  conquered  their  own  king, 
and  having  had  him  delivered  into  their  hands, 
have  not  scrupled  to  condemn  him  judicially,  and, 
pursuant  to  that  sentence  of  condemnation,  to  put 
him  to  death.  After  the  performing  so  glorious  an 
action  as  this,  you  ought  to  do  nothing  that  is  mean 
and  little,  not  so  much  as  to  think  of,  much  less  to 
do,  anything  but  what  is  great  and  sublime.  Which 
to  attain  to,  this  is  your  only  way :  as  you  have 
subdued  your  enemies  in  the  field,  so  to  make 
appear,  that  unarmed,  and  in  the  highest  outward 
peace  and  tranquillity,  you  of  all  mankind  are  best 
able  to  subdue  ambition,  avarice,  the  love  of  riches, 
and  can  best  avoid  the  corruptions  that  prosperity 
is  apt  to  introduce,  (which  generally  subdue  and 
triumph  over  other  nations,)  to  show  as  great 
justice,  temperance,  and  moderation  in  the  main- 
taining your  liberty,  as  you  have  shown  courage 
in  freeing  yourselves  from  slavery.  These  are  the 
only  arguments  by  which  you  will  be  able  to 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  295 

evince  that  you  are  not  such  persons  as  this  fellow 
represents  you,  —  Traitors,  Robbers,  Murderers, 
Parricides,  Madmen ;  that  you  did  not  put  your 
king  to  death  out  of  any  ambitious  design,  or  a 
desire  of  invading  the  rights  of  others ;  not  out  of 
any  seditious  principles  or  sinister  ends  ;  that  it 
was  not  an  act  of  fury  or  madness ;  but  that  it  was 
wholly  out  of  love  to  your  liberty,  your  religion, 
to  justice,  virtue,  and  your  country,  that  you  pun- 
ished a  tyrant.  But  if  it  should  fall  out  other- 
wise, (which  God  forbid,)  if  as  you  have  been 
valiant  in  war,  you  should  grow  debauched  in 
'peace,  you  that  have  had  such  visible  demonstra- 
tions of  the  goodness  of  God  to  yourselves,  and 
his  wrath  against  your  enemies ;  and  that  you 
should  not  have  learned  by  so  eminent,  so  remark- 
able an  example  before  your  eyes,  to  fear  God, 
and  work  righteousness ;  for  my  part,  I  shall  easily 
grant  and  confess  (for  I  cannot  deny  it)  whatever 
ill  men  may  speak  or  think  of  you,  to  be  very 
true.  And  you  will  find  in  a  little  time,  that 
God's  displeasure  against  you  will  be  greater  than 
it  has  been  against  your  adversaries,  greater  than 
his  grace  and  favor  has  been  to  yourselves,  which 
you  have  had  larger  experience  of  than  any  other 
nation  under  heaven. 


FROM 

THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF  THE 
PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND. 


GRATEFUL  recollection  of  the  divine 
goodness  is  the  first  of  human  obliga- 
tions; and  extraordinary  favors  demand' 
more  solemn  and  devout  acknowledg- 
ments: with  such  acknowledgments  I  feel  it  my 
duty  to  begin  this  work.  First,  because  I  was 
born  at  a  time  when  the  virtue  of  my  fellow-citi- 
far  exceeding  that  of  their  progenitors  in 


zens, 


greatness  of  soul  and  vigor  of  enterprise,  having 
invoked  Heaven  to  witness  the  justice  of  their 
cause,  and  been  clearly  governed  by  its  directions, 
has  succeeded  in  delivering  the  commonwealth 
from  the  most  grievous  tyranny,  and  religion  from 
the  most  ignominious  degradation.  And  next,  be- 
cause when  there  suddenly  arose  many  who,  as  is 
usual  with  the  vulgar,  basely  calumniated  the  most 
illustrious  achievements,  and  when  one,  eminent 
above  the  rest,  inflated  with  literary  pride,  and  the 
zealous  applauses  of  his  partisans,  had  in  a  scanda- 
lous publication,  which  was  particularly  levelled 


FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE.        297 

against  me,  nefariously  undertaken  to  plead  the 
cause  of  despotism,  I,  who  was  neither  deemed  un- 
equal to  so  renowned  an  adversary,  nor  to  so  great 
a  subject,  was  particularly  selected  by  the  deliver- 
ers of  our  country,  and  by  the  general  suffrage  of 
the  public,  openly  to  vindicate  the  rights  of  the 
English  nation,  and  consequently  of  liberty  itself. 
Lastly,  because  in  a  matter  of  so  much  moment, 
and  which  excited  such  ardent  expectations,  I  did 
not  disappoint  the  hopes  nor  the  opinions  of  my 
fellow-citizens ;  while  men  of  learning  and  emi- 
nence abroad  honored  me  with  unmingled  appro- 
bation ;  while  I  obtained  such  a  victory  over  my 
opponent,  that,  notwithstanding  his  unparalleled 
assurance,  he  was  obliged  to  quit  the  field  with 
his  courage  broken  and  his  reputation  lost ;  and  for 
the  three  years  which  he  lived  afterwards,  much 
as  he  menaced  and  furiously  as  he  raved,  he  gave 
me  no  further  trouble,  except  that  he  procured  the 
paltry  aid  of  some  despicable  hirelings,  and  sub- 
orned some  of  his  silly  and  extravagant  admirers, 
to  support  him  under  the  weight  of  the  unexpected 
and  recent  disgrace  which  he  had  experienced. 
This  will  immediately  appear.  Such  are  the  sig- 
nal favors  which  I  ascribe  to  the  divine  beneficence, 
and  which  I  thought  it  right  devoutly  to  commemo- 
rate, not  only  that  I  might  discharge  a  debt  of 
gratitude,  but  particularly  because  they  seem  aus- 
picious to  the  success  of  my  present  undertaking. 
For  who  is  there  who  does  not  identify  the  honor 

13* 


298      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

of  his  country  with  his  own  ?  And  what  can  con- 
duce more  to  the  beauty  or  glory  of  one's  country, 
than  the  recovery,  not  only  of  its  civil  but  its  re- 
ligious liberty  ?  And  what  nation  or  state  ever 
obtained  both,  by  more  successful  or  more  valorous 
exertion  ?  For  fortitude  is  seen  resplendent,  not 
only  in  the  field  of  battle  and  amid  the  clash  of 
arms,  but  displays  its  energy  under  every  difficulty 
and  against  every  assailant.  Those  Greeks  and 
Romans,  who  are  the  objects  of  our  admiration,  em- 
ployed hardly  any  other  virtue  in  the  extirpation 
of  tyrants,  than  that  love  of  liberty  which  made 
them  prompt  in  seizing  the  sword,  and  gave  them 
strength  to  use  it.  With  facility  they  accomplished 
the  undertaking,  amid  the  general  shout  of  praise 
and  joy ;  nor  did  they  engage  in  the  attempt  so 
much  as  an  enterprise  of  perilous  and  doubtful  is- 
sue, as  in  a  contest  the  most  glorious  in  which  vir- 
tue could  be  signalized;  which  infallibly  led  to 
present  recompense ;  which  bound  their  brows 
with  wreaths  of  laurel,  and  consigned  their  mem- 
ories to  immortal  fame.  For  as  yet,  tyrants  were 
not  beheld  with  a  superstitious  reverence  ;  as  yet 
they  were  not  regarded  with  tenderness  and  com- 
placency, as  the  vicegerents  or  deputies  of  Christ, 
as  they  have  suddenly  professed  to  be  ;  as  yet  the 
vulgar,  stupefied  by  the  subtle  casuistry  of  the 
priest,  had  not  degenerated  into  a  state  of  barba- 
rism, more  gross  than  that  which  disgraces  the  most 
senseless  natives  of  Hindostan.  For  these  make  mis- 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  299 

chievous  demons,  whose  malice  they  cannot  resist, 
the  objects  of  their  religious  adoration  :  while  those 
elevate  impotent  tyrants,  in  order  to  shield  them 
from  destruction,  into  the  rank  of  gods  ;  and,  to 
their  own  cost,  consecrate  the  pests  of  the  human 
race.  But  against  this  dark  array  of  long-re- 
ceived opinions,  superstitions,  obloquy,  and  fears, 
which  some  dread  even  more  than  the  enemy  him- 
self, the  English  had  to  contend;  and  all  this, 
under  the  light  of  better  information,  and  favored 
by  an  impulse  from  above,  they  overcame  with 
such  singular  enthusiasm  and  bravery,  that,  great 
as  were  the  numbers  engaged  in  the  contest,  the 
grandeur  of  conception,  and  loftiness  of  spirit  which 
were  universally  displayed,  merited  for  each  indi- 
vidual more  than  a  mediocrity  of  fame  ;  and  Brit- 
ain, which  was  formerly  styled  the  hot-bed  of  tyr- 
anny, will  hereafter  deserve  to  be  celebrated,  for 
endless  ages,  as  a  soil  most  genial  to  the  growth  of 
liberty.  During  the  mighty  struggle,  no  anarchy, 
no  licentiousness  was  seen  ;  no  illusions  of  glory, 
no  extravagant  emulation  of  the  ancients  inflamed 
them  with  a  thirst  for  ideal  liberty ;  but  the  recti- 
tude of  their  lives,  and  the  sobriety  of  their  habits, 
taught  them  the  only  true  and  safe  road  to  real 
liberty  ;  and  they  took  up  arms  only  to  defend  the 
sanctity  of  the  laws  and  the  rights  of  conscience. 
Relying  on  the  divine  assistance,  they  used  every 
honorable  exertion  to  break  the  yoke  of  slavery  ; 
of  the  praise  of  which,  though  I  claim  no  share  to 


300      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

myself,  yet  I  can  easily  repel  any  charge  which 
may  be  adduced  against  me,  either  of  want  of 
courage,  or  want  of  zeal.  For  though  I  did  not 
participate  in  the  toils  or  dangers  of  the  war,  yet  I 
was  at  the  same  time  engaged  in  a  service  not  less 
hazardous  to  myself  and  more  beneficial  to  my  fel- 
low-citizens ;  nor,  in  the  adverse  turns  of  our  af- 
fairs, did  I  ever  betray  any  symptoms  of  pusilla- 
nimity and  dejection ;  or  show  myself  more  afraid 
than  became  me  of  malice  or  of  death.  For  since 
from  my  youth  I  was  devoted  to  the  pursuits  of 
literature,  and  my  mind  had  always  been  stronger 
than  my  body,  I  did  not  court  the  labors  of  a 
camp,  in  which  any  common  person  would  have 
been  of  more  service  than  myself,  but  resorted  to 
that  employment  in  which  my  exertions  were 
likely  to  be  of  most  avail.  Thus,  with  the  better 
part  of  my  frame  I  contributed  as  much  as  possi- 
ble to  the  good  of  my  country,  and  to  the  success 
of  the  glorious  cause  in  which  we  were  engaged ; 
and  I  thought  that  if  God  willed  the  success  of  such 
glorious  achievements,  it  was  equally  agreeable  to 
his  will  that  there  should  be  others  by  whom  those 
achievements  should  be  recorded  with  dignity  and 
elegance ;  and  that  the  truth,  which  had  been  de- 
fended by  arms,  should  also  be  defended  by  reason  ; 
which  is  the  best  and  only  legitimate  means  of  de- 
fending it.  Hence,  while  I  applaud  those  who 
were  victorious  in  the  field,  I  will  not  complain  of 
the  province  which  was  assigned  me ;  but  rather 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  301 

congratulate  myself  upon  it,  and  thank  the  Author 
of  all  good  for  having  placed  me  in  a  station,  which 
may  be  an  object  of  envy  to  others  rather  than  of 
regret  to  myself.  I  am  far  from  wishing  to  make 
any  vain  or  arrogant  comparisons,  or  to  speak  os- 
tentatiously of  myself;  but,  in  a  cause  so  great 
and  glorious,  and  particularly  on  an  occasion  when 
I  am  called  by  the  general  suffrage  to  defend  the 
very  defenders  of  that  cause,  I  can  hardly  refrain 
from  assuming  a  more  lofty  and  swelling  tone  than 
the  simplicity  of  an  exordium  may  seem  to  justify  : 
and  much  as  I  may  be  surpassed  in  the  powers  of 
eloquence  and  copiousness  of  diction,  by  the  illus- 
trious orators  of  antiquity,  yet  the  subject  of  which 
I  treat  was  never  surpassed  in  any  age,  in  dignity, 
or  in  interest.  It  has  excited  such  general  and 
such  ardent  expectation,  that  I  imagine  myself  not 
in  the  forum  or  on  the  rostra,  surrounded  only  by 
the  people  of  Athens  or  of  Rome,  but  about  to  ad- 
dress in  this,  as  I  did  in  my  former  Defence,  the 
whole  collective  body  of  people,  cities,  states,  and 
councils  of  the  wise  and  eminent,  through  the 
wide  expanse  of  anxious  and  listening  Europe. 
I  seem  to  survey,  as  from  a  towering  height,  the 
far-extended  tracts  of  sea  and  land,  and  innumera- 
ble crowds  of  spectators,  betraying  in  their  looks  the 
liveliest  interest,  and  sensations  the  most  congenial 
with  my  own.  Here  I  behold  the  stout  and  man- 
ly prowess  of  the  Germans  disdaining  servitude  ; 
there  the  generous  and  lively  impetuosity  of  the 


302      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

French ;  on  this  side,  the  calm  and  stately  valor  of 
the  Spaniard ;  on  that  the  composed  and  wary 
magnanimity  of  the  Italian.  Of  all  the  lovers  of 
liberty  and  virtue,  the  magnanimous  and  the  wise, 
in  whatever  quarter  they  may  be  found,  some  se- 
cretly favor,  others  openly  approve;  some  greet 
me  with  congratulations  and  applause ;  others,  who 
had  long  been  proof  against  conviction,  at  last 
yield  themselves  captive  to  the  force  of  truth. 
Surrounded  by  congregated  multitudes,  I  now  im- 
agine that,  from  the  columns  of  Hercules  to  the  In- 
dian Ocean,  I  behold  the  nations  of  the  earth  re- 
covering that  liberty  which  they  so  long  had  lost ; 
and  that  the  people  of  this  island  are  transporting 
to  other  countries  a  plant  of  more  beneficial  quali- 
ties, and  more  noble  growth,  than  that  which  Trip- 
tolemus  is  reported  to  have  carried  from  region  to 
region  ;  that  they  are  disseminating  the  blessings 
of  civilization  and  freedom  among  cities,  kingdoms, 

and  nations 

The  prerogative  which  I  deny  to  kings,  I  would 
persist  in  denying  in  any  legitimate  monarchy; 
for  no  sovereign  could  injure  me  without  first  con- 
demning himself  by  a  confession  of  his  despotism. 
If  I  inveigh  against  tyrants,  what  is  this  to  kings  ? 
whom  I  am  far  from  associating  with  tyrants.  As 
much  as  an  honest  man  differs  from  a  rogue,  so 
much  I  contend  that  a  king  differs  from  a  tyrant. 
Whence  it  is  clear,  that  a  tyrant  is  so  far  from 
being  a  king,  that  he  is  always  in  direct  opposition 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  303 

to  a  king.  And  he  who  peruses  the  records  of 
history,  will  find  that  more  kings  have  been  sub- 
verted by  tyrants  than  by  their  subjects.  He, 
therefore,  who  would  authorize  the  destruction  of 
tyrants,  does  not  authorize  the  destruction  of  kings, 
but  of  the  most  inveterate  enemies  to  kings.  But 

O 

that  right,  which  you  concede  to  kings,  the  right 
of  doing  what  they  please,  is  not  justice,  but  in- 
justice, ruin,  and  despair.  By  that  envenomed 
present  you  yourselves  destroy  those  whom  you 
extol  as  if  they  were  above  the  reach  of  danger 
and  oppression ;  and  you  quite  obliterate  the  differ- 
ence between  a  king  and  a  tyrant,  if  you  invest 
both  with  the  same  arbitrary  power.  For,  if  a 
king  does  not  exercise  that  power,  (and  no  king 
will  exercise  it  as  long  as  he  is  not  a  tyrant,)  the 
power  must  be  ascribed,  not  to  the  king,  but  to  the 
individual.  For,  what  can  be  imagined  more  ab- 
surd than  that  regal  prerogative,  which,  if  any  one 
uses,  as  often  as  he  wishes  to  act  the  king,  so  often 
he  ceases  to  be  an  honest  man ;  and  as  often  as  he 
chooses  to  be  an  honest  man,  so  often  he  must 
evince  that  he  is  not  a  king  ?  Can  any  more  bitter 
reproach  be  cast  upon  kings  ?  He  who  maintains 
this  prerogative  must  himself  be  a  monster  of  in- 
justice and  iniquity ;  for  how  can  there  be  a  worse 
person  than  him,  who  must  himself  first  verify  the 
exaggerated  picture  of  atrocity  which  he  delineates? 
But  if  every  good  man,  as  an  ancient  sect  of  phi- 
losophers magnificently  taught,  is  a  king,  it  follows 


304      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

that  every  bad  one  is,  according  to  his  capacity,  a 
tyrant ;  nor  does  the  name  of  tyrant  signify  any- 
thing soaring  or  illustrious,  but  the  meanest  reptile 
on  the  earth  ;  for  in  proportion  as  he  is  great,  he  is 
contemptible  and  abject.  Others  are  vicious  only 
for  themselves ;  but  tyrants  are  vicious,  not  only 
for  themselves,  but  are  even  involuntarily  obliged 
to  participate  in  the  crimes  of  their  importunate 
menials  and  favorites,  and  to  intrust  certain  por- 
tions of  their  despotism  to  the  vilest  of  their 
dependants.  Tyrants  are  thus  the  most  abject  of 
slaves,  for  they  are  the  servants  of  those  who  are 

themselves  in  servitude 

Let  us  now  come  to  the  charges  which  were 
brought  against  myself.  Is  there  anything  repre- 
hensible in  my  manners  or  my  conduct  ?  Surely 
nothing.  What  no  one,  not  totally  divested  of 
all  generous  sensibility,  would  have  done,  he  re- 
proaches me  with  want  of  beauty  and  loss  of 
sight,— 

"  A  monster  huge  and  hideous,  void  of  sight." 

I  certainly  never  supposed  that  I  should  have 
been  obliged  to  enter  into  a  competition  for  beauty 
with  the  Cyclops ;  but  he  immediately  corrects 
himself,  and  says,  "  though  not  indeed  huge,  for 
there  cannot  be  a  more  spare,  shrivelled,  and 
bloodless  form."  It  is  of  no  moment  to  say  any- 
thing of  personal  appearance,  yet  lest  (as  the 
Spanish  vulgar,  implicitly  confiding  in  the  relations 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.     305 

of  their  priests,  believe  of  heretics)  any  one,  from 
the  representations  of  my  enemies,  should  be  led 
to  imagine  that  I  have  either  the  head  of  a  dog,  or 
the  horn  of  a  rhinoceros,  I  will  say  something  on 
the  subject,  that  I  may  have  an  opportunity  of 
paying  my  grateful  acknowledgments  to  the  Deity, 
and  of  refuting  the  most  shameless  lies.  I  do  not 
believe  that  I  was  ever  once  noted  for  deformity, 
by  any  one  who  ever  saw  me ;  but  the  praise  of 
beauty  I  am  not  anxious  to  obtain.  My  stature 
certainly  is  not  tall ;  but  it  rather  approaches  the 
middle  than  the  diminutive.  Yet  what  if  it  were 
diminutive,  when  so  many  men,  illustrious  both  in 
peace  and  war,  have  been  the  same  ?  And  how 
can  that  be  called  diminutive,  which  is  great 
enough  for  every  virtuous  achievement?  Nor, 
though  very  thin,  was  I  ever  deficient  in  courage 
or  in  strength ;  and  I  was  wont  constantly  to  exer- 
cise myself  in  the  use  of  the  broadsword,  as  long 
as  it  comported  with  my  habit  and  my  years. 
Armed  with  this  weapon,  as  I  usually  was,  I 
should  have  thought  myself  quite  a  match  for  any 
one,  though  much  stronger  than  myself;  and  I  felt 
perfectly  secure  against  the  assault  of  any  open 
enemy.  At  this  moment  I  have  the  same  courage, 
the  same  strength,  though  not  the  same  eyes ;  yet 
so  little  do  they  betray  any  external  appearance  of 
injury,  that  they  are  as  unclouded  and  bright  as 
the  eyes  of  those  who  most  distinctly  see.  In  this 
instance  alone  I  am  a  dissembler  against  my  will. 


306      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

My  face,  which  is  said  to  indicate  a  total  privation 
of  blood,  is  of  a  complexion  entirely  opposite  to 
the  pale  and  the  cadaverous ;  so  that,  though  I  am 
more  than  forty  years  old,  there  is  scarcely  any  one 
to  whom  I  do  not  appear  ten  years  younger  than  I 
am ;  and  the  smoothness  of  my  skin  is  not,  in  the 
least,  affected  by  the  wrinkles  of  age.  If  there  be 
one  particle  of  falsehood  in  this  relation,  I  should 
deservedly  incur  the  ridicule  of  many  thousands 
of  my  countrymen,  and  even  many  foreigners,  to 
whom  I  am  personally  known.  But  if  he,  in  a 
matter  so  foreign  to  his  purpose,  shall  be  found  to 
have  asserted  so  many  shameless  and  gratuitous 
falsehoods,  you  may  the  more  readily  estimate  the 
quantity  of  his  veracity  on  other  topics.  Thus 
much  necessity  compelled  me  to  assert  concerning 
•my  personal  appearance.  Respecting  yours,  though 
I  have  been  informed  that  it  is  most  insignificant 
and  contemptible,  a  perfect  mirror  of  the  worth- 
lessness  of  your  character  and  the  malevolence  of 
your  heart,  I  say  nothing,  and  no  one  will  be 
anxious  that  anything  should  be  said.  I  wish  that 
I  could  with  equal  facility  refute  what  this  barba- 
rous opponent  has  said  of  my  blindness ;  but  I  can- 
not do  it ;  and  I  must  submit  to  the  affliction.  It 
is  not  so  wretched  to  be  blind,  as  it  is  not  to  be 
capable  of  enduring  blindness.  But  why  should  I 
not  endure  a  misfortune,  which  it  behoves  every 
one  to  be  prepared  to  endure  if  it  should  happen  ; 
which  may,  in  the  common  course  of  things,  hap- 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.     307 

pen  to  any  man ;  and  which  has  been  known  to 
happen  to  the  most  distinguished  and  virtuous  per- 
sons in  history.  Shall  I  mention  those  wise  and 
ancient  bards,  whose  misfortunes  the  gods  afe  said 
to  have  compensated  by  superior  endowments,  and 
whom  men  so  much  revered,  that  they  chose 
rather  to  impute  their  want  of  sight  to  the  injustice 
of  Heaven  than  to  their  own  want  of  innocence 
or  virtue  ?  What  is  reported  of  the  Augur  Tire- 
sias  is  well  known ;  of  whom  Apollonius  sung  thus 
in  his  Argonauts :  — 

"  To  men  he  dared  the  will  divine  disclose, 
Nor  feared  what  Jove  might  in  his  wrath  impose. 
The  gods  assigned  him  age,  without  decay, 
But  snatched  the  blessing  of  his  sight  away." 

But  God  himself  is  truth ;  in  propagating  which, 
as  men  display  a  greater  integrity  and  zeal,  they 
approach  nearer  to  the  similitude  of  God,  and  pos- 
sess a  greater  portion  of  his  love.  We  cannot 
suppose  the  Deity  envious  of  truth,  or  unwilling 
that  it  should  be  freely  communicated  to  mankind. 
The  loss  of  sight,  therefore,  which  this  inspired 
sage,  who  was  so  eager  in  promoting  knowledge 
among  men,  sustained,  cannot  be  considered  as  a 
judicial  punishment.  Or  shall  I  mention  those 
worthies,  who  were  as  distinguished  for  wisdom  in 
the  cabinet  as  for  valor  in  the  field  ?  And  first, 
Timoleon  of  Corinth,  who  delivered  his  city  and 
all  Sicily  from  the  yoke  of  slavery;  than  whom 
there  never  lived  in  any  age,  a  more  virtuous  man, 


308      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

or  a  more  incorrupt  statesman :  next  Appius  Clau- 
dius, whose  discreet  counsels  in  the  Senate,  though 
they  could  not  restore  sight  to  his  own  eyes,  saved 
Italy  from  the  formidable  inroads  of  Pyrrhus : 
then  Csecilius  Metellus  the  high-priest,  who  lost  his 
sight,  while  he  saved,  not  only  the  city,  but  the 
palladium,  the  protection  of  the  city,  and  the  most 
sacred  relics,  from  the  destruction  of  the  flames. 
On  other  occasions  Providence  has  indeed  given 
conspicuous  proofs  of  its  regard  for  such  singular 
exertions  of  patriotism  and  virtue  ;  what,  there- 
fore, happened  to  so  great  and  so  good  a  man, 
I  can  hardly  place  in  the  catalogue  of  misfor- 
tunes. Why  should  I  mention  others  of  later 
times,  as  Dandolo  of  Venice,  the  incomparable 
Doge;  of  Boemar  Zisca,  the  bravest  of  generals, 
and  the  champion  of  the  cross ;  or  Jerome  Zan- 
chius,  and  some  other  theologians  of  the  highest 
reputation?  For  it  is  evident  that  the  patriarch 
Isaac,  than  whom  no  man  ever  enjoyed  more  of 
the  divine  regard,  lived  blind  for  many  years ;  and 
perhaps  also  his  son  Jacob,  who  was  equally  an 
object  of  the  divine  benevolence.  And  in  short, 
did  not  our  Saviour  himself  clearly  declare  that  that 
poor  man  whom  he  restored  to  sight  had  not  been 
born  blind  either  on  account  of  his  own  sins  or 
those  of  his  progenitors?  And  with  respect  to 
myself,  though  I  have  accurately  examined  my 
conduct,  and  scrutinized  my  soul,  I  call  thee, 
O  God,  the  searcher  of  hearts,  to  witness,  that  I 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  309 

ain  not  conscious,  either  in  the  more  early  or  in 
the  later  periods  of  my  life,  of  having  committed 
any  enormity,  which  might  deservedly  have  marked 
me  out  as  a  fit  object  for  such  a  calamitous  visita- 
tion. But  since  my  enemies  boast  that  this  afflic- 
tion is  only  a  retribution  for  the  transgressions  of 
my  pen,  I  again  invoke  the  Almighty  to  witness, 
that  I  never,  at  any  time,  wrote  anything  which  I 
did  not  think  agreeable  to  truth,  to  justice,  and  to 
piety.  This  was  my  persuasion  then,  and  I  feel 
the  same  persuasion  now.  Nor  was  I  ever  prompt- 
ed to  such  exertions  by  the  influence  of  ambition, 
by  the  lust  of  lucre  or  of  praise  ;  it  was  only  by 
the  conviction  of  duty  and  the  feeling  of  patriot- 
ism, a  disinterested  passion  for  the  extension  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty.  Thus,  therefore,  when 
I  was  publicly  solicited  to  write  a  reply  to  the 
Defence  of  the  royal  cause,  when  I  had  to  con- 
tend with  the  pressure  of  sickness,  and  with  the 
apprehension  of  soon  losing  the  sight  of  my  remain- 
ing eye,  and  when  my  medical  attendants  clearly 
announced,  that  if  I  did  engage  in  the  work,  it 
would  be  irreparably  lost,  their  premonitions  caused 
no  hesitation  and  inspired  no  dismay.  I  would  not 
have  listened  to  the  voice  even  of  Esculapius  him- 
self from  the  shrine  of  Epidauris,  in  preference  to 
the  suggestions  of  the  heavenly  monitor  within  my 
breast;  my  resolution  was  unshaken,  though  the 
alternative  was  either  the  loss  of  my  sight,  or  the 
desertion  of  my  duty :  and  I  called  to  mind  those 


310      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

two   destinies,    which   the   oracle   of  Delphi  an- 
nounced to  the  son  of  Thetis :  — 

"  Two  fates  may  lead  me  to  the  realms  of  night ; 
If  staying  here,  around  Troy's  wall  I  fight, 
To  my  dear  home  no  more  must  I  return ; 
But  lasting  glory  will  adorn  my  urn. 
But,  if  I  withdraw  from  the  martial  strife, 
Short  is  my  fame,  but  long  will  be  my  life."  — II.  ix. 

I  considered  that  many  had  purchased  a  less  good 
by  a  greater  evil,  the  meed  of  glory  by  the  loss  of 
life ;  but  that  I  might  procure  great  good  by  little 
suffering;  that  though  I  am  blind,  I  might  still 
discharge  the  most  honorable  duties,  the  perform- 
ance of  which,  as  it  is  something  more  durable  than 
glory,  ought  to  be  an  object  of  superior  admiration 
and  esteem ;  I  resolved,  therefore,  to  make  the 
short  interval  of  sight,  which  was  left  me  to  enjoy, 
as  beneficial  as  possible  to  the  public  interest. 
Thus  it  is  clear  by  what  motives  I  was  governed 
in  the  measures  which  I  took,  and  the  losses  which 
I  sustained.  Let  then  the  calumniators  of  the 
divine  goodness  cease  to  revile,  or  to  make  me  the 
object  of  their  superstitious  imaginations.  Let 
them  consider,  that  my-  situation,  such  as  it  is,  is 
neither  an  object  of  my  shame  or  my  regret,  that 
my  resolutions  are  too  firm  to  be  shaken,  that  I  am 
not  depressed  by  any  sense  of  the  divine  displeas- 
ure ;  that,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  most  moment- 
ous periods,  I  have  had  full  experience  of  the 
divine  favor  and  protection ;  and  that,  in  the  solace 
and  the  strength  which  have  been  infused  into  me 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  311 

from  above,  I  have  been  enabled  to  do  the  will  of 
God ;  that  I  may  oftener  think  on  what  he  has  be- 
stowed, than  on  what  he  has  withheld ;  that,  in  short, 
I  am  unwilling  to  exchange  my  consciousness  of 
rectitude  with  that  of  any  other  person ;  and  that 
I  feel  the  recollection  of  a  treasured  store  of  tran- 
quillity and  delight.  But,  if  the  choice  were  neces- 
sary, I  would,  sir,  prefer  my  blindness  to  yours ; 
yours  is  a  cloud  spread  over  the  mind,  which  dark- 
ens both  the  light  of  reason  and  of  conscience ; 
mine  keeps  from  my  view  only  the  colored  sur- 
faces of  things,  while  it  leaves  me  at  liberty  to 
contemplate  the  beauty  and  stability  of  virtue  and 
of  truth.  How  many  things  are  there  besides 
which  I  would  not  willingly  see  ;  how  many  which 
I  must  see  against  my  will ;  and  how  few  which  I 
feel  any  anxiety  to  see  !  There  is,  as  the  Apostle 
has  remarked,  a  way  to  strength  through  weakness. 
Let  me  then  be  the  most  feeble  creature  alive,  as 
long  as  that  feebleness  serves  to  invigorate  the 
energies  of  my  rational  and  immortal  spirit;  as 
long  as  in  that  obscurity  in  which  I  am  enveloped 
the  light  of  the  divine  presence  more  clearly  shines, 
then,  in  proportion  as  I  am  weak,  I  shall  be  invin- 
cibly strong ;  and  in  proportion  as  I  am  blind,  I 
shall  more  clearly  see.  O  that  I  may  thus  be 
perfected  by  feebleness,  and  irradiated  by  obscurity ! 
And,  indeed,  in  my  blindness,  I  enjoy  in  no  incon- 
siderable degree  the  favor  of  the  Deity,  who  re- 
gards me  with  more  tenderness  and  compassion  in 


312      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

proportion  as  I  am  able  to  behold  nothing  but  him- 
self. Alas !  for  him  who  insults  me,  who  maligns 

7  O 

and  merits  public  execration !  For  the  divine  law 
not  only  shields  me  from  injury,  but  almost  renders 
me  too  sacred  to  attack ;  not  indeed  so  much  from 
the  privation  of  my  sight,  as  from  the  overshadow- 
ing of  those  heavenly  wings  which  seem  to  have 
occasioned  this  obscurity ;  and  which,  when  occa- 
sioned, he  is  wont  to  illuminate  with  an  interior 
light,  more  precious  and  more  pure.  To  this  I 
ascribe  the  more  tender  assiduities  of  my  friends, 
their  soothing  attentions,  their  kind  visits,  their 
reverential  observances ;  among  whom  there  are 
some  with  whom  I  may  interchange  the  Pyladean 
and  Thesean  dialogue  of  inseparable  friends :  — 

"  Orest.   Proceed,  and  be  rudder  of  my  feet,  by  showing  me  the 
most  endearing  love."  —  EURIP.  in  Orest. 

And  in  another  place, 

"  Lend  your  hand  to  your  devoted  friend, 
Throw  your  arm  round  my  neck,  and  I  will  conduct  you  on 
the  way." 

This  extraordinary  kindness,  which  I  experi- 
ence, cannot  be  any  fortuitous  combination  ;  and 
friends,  such  as  mine,  do  not  suppose  that  all  the 
virtues  of  a  man  are  contained  in  his  eyes.  Nor 
do  the  persons  of  principal  distinction  in  the  com- 
monwealth suffer  me  to  be  bereaved  of  comfort, 
when  they  see  me  bereaved  of  sight,  amid  the  ex- 
ertions which  I  made,  the  zeal  which  I  showed, 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  313 

and  the  dangers  which  I  run  for  the  liberty  which 
I  love.  But,  soberly  reflecting  on  the  casualties 
of  human  life,  they  show  me  favor  and  indulgence, 
as  to  a  soldier  who  has  served  his  time,  and  kindly 
concede  to  me  an  exemption  from  care  and  toil. 
They  do  not  strip  me  of  the  badges  of  honor 
which  I  have  once  worn ;  they  do  not  deprive  me 
of  the  places  of  public  trust  to  which  I  have  been 
appointed ;  they  do  not  abridge  my  salary  or  emol- 
uments ;  which,  though  I  may  not  do  so  much  to 
deserve  as  I  did  formerly,  they  are  too  considerate 
and  too  kind  to  take  away ;  and,  in  short,  they 
honor  me  as  much  as  the  Athenians  did  those 
whom  they  determined  to  support  at  the  public  ex- 
pense in  the  Prytaneum.  Thus,  while  both  God 
and  man  unite  in  solacing  me  under  the  weight  of 
my  affliction,  let  no  one  lament  my  loss  of  sight 
in  so  honorable  a  cause 

He  alone  is  worthy  of  the  appellation  [great] 
who  does  great  things,  or  teaches  how  they  may  be 
done,  or  describes  them  with  a  suitable  majesty 
when  they  have  been  done ;  but  those  only  are 
great  things,  which  tend  to  render  life  more  happy, 
which  increase  the  innocent  enjoyments  and  com- 
forts of  existence,  or  which  pave  the  way  to 
a  state  of  future  bliss  more  permanent  and  more 
pure 

My  work  soon  excited  general  approbation  and 
delight ;  the  author  was  lost  sight  of  in  the  blaze 
of  truth ;  and  Salmasius,  who  had  so  lately  been 

14 


314      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

towering  on  the  pinnacle  of  distinction,  stripped 
of  the  mask  which  he  had  worn,  soon  dwindled 
into  insignificance  and  contempt ;  from  which,  as 
long  as  he  lived,  he  could  never  afterwards  emerge, 
or  recover  his  former  consequence.  But  your 
penetrating  mind,  O  serene  queen  of  Sweden, 
soon  detected  his  imposture ;  and,  with  a  magna- 
nimity almost  above  human,  you  taught  sovereigns 
and  the  world  to  prefer  truth  to  the  interested 
clamors  of  faction.  For  though  the  splendor  of 
his  erudition,  and  the  celebrity  which  he  had  ac- 
quired in  the  defence  of  the  royal  cause,  had  in- 
duced you  to  honor  him  with  many  marks  of  dis- 
tinction, yet,  when  my  answer  appeared,  which 
you  perused  with  singular  equanimity,  you  per- 
ceived that  he  had  been  convicted  of  the  most  pal- 
pable effrontery  and  misrepresentation  ;  that  he 
had  betrayed  the  utmost  indiscretion  and  intem- 
perance, that  he  had  uttered  many  falsehoods, 
many  inconsistencies  and  contradictions.  On  this 
account,  as  it  is  said,  you  had  him  called  into 
your  presence  ;  but  when  he  was  unable  to  vindi- 
cate himself,  you  were  so  visibly  offended,  that 
from  that  time  you  neither  showed  him  the  same 
attentions,  nor  held  his  talents  nor  his  learning  in 
the  same  esteem ;  and,  what  was  entirely  unex- 
pected, you  manifested  a  disposition  to  favor  his 
adversary.  You  denied  that  what  I  had  written 
against  tyrants  could  have  any  reference  to  you ; 
whence,  in  your  own  breast  you  enjoyed  the 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  315 

sweets,  and  among  others  the  fame,  of  a  good  con- 
science. For,  since  the  whole  tenor  of  your  con- 
duct sufficiently  proves,  that  you  are  no  tyrant, 
this  unreserved  expression  of  your  sentiments 
makes  it  still  more  clear,  that  you  are  not  even 
conscious  to  yourself  of  being  one.  How  happy 
am  I  beyond  my  utmost  expectations  !  (for  to  the 
praise  of  eloquence,  except  as  far  as  eloquence 
consists  in  the  force  of  truth,  I  lay  no  claim,)  that, 
when  the  critical  exigencies  of  my  country  de- 
manded that  I  should  undertake  the  arduous  and 
invidious  task  of  impugning  the  rights  of  kings,  I 
should  meet  with  so  illustrious,  so  truly  a  royal 
evidence  to  my  integrity,  and  to  this  truth,  that  I 
had  not  written  a  word  against  kings,  but  only 
against  tyrants,  the  spots  and  the  pests  of  royalty  ? 
But  you,  O  Augusta,  possessed  not  only  so  much 
magnanimity,  but  were  so  irradiated  by  the  glori- 
ous beams  of  wisdom  and  of  virtue,  that  you  not 
only  read  with  patience,  with  incredible  impartiali- 
ty, with  a  serene  complacency  of  countenance, 
what  might  seem  to  be  levelled  against  your  rights 
and  dignity ;  but  expressed  such  an  opinion  of  the 
defender  of  those  rights,  as  may  well  be  consid- 
ered an  adjudication  of  the  palm  of  victory  to  his 
opponent.  You,  O  queen  !  will  forever  be  the  ob- 
ject of  my  homage,  my  veneration,  and  my  love  ; 
for  it  was  your  greatness  of  soul,  so  honorable  to 
yourself  and  so  auspicious  to  me,  which  served  to 
efface  the  unfavorable  impression  against  me  at 


316      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

other  courts,  and  to  rescue  me  from  the  evil  sur- 
mises of  other  sovereigns.  What  a  high  and  fa- 
vorable opinion  must  foreigners  conceive,  and 
your  own  subjects  forever  entertain,  of  your  im- 
partiality and  justice,  when,  in  a  matter  which  so 
nearly  interested  the  fate  of  sovereigns  and  the 
rights  of  your  crown,  they  saw  you  sit  down  to 
the  discussion  with  as  much  equanimity  and  com- 
posure, as  you  would  to  determine  a  dispute  be- 
tween two  private  individuals.  It  was  not  in  vain 
that  you  made  such  large  collections  of  books,  and 
so  many  monuments  of  learning  ;  not,  indeed,  that 
they  could  contribute  much  to  your  instruction, 
but  because  they  so  will  teach  your  subjects  to 
appreciate  the  merits  of  your  reign,  and  the  rare 
excellence  of  your  virtue  and  your  wisdom.  For 
the  Divinity  himself  seems  to  have  inspired  you 
with  a  love  of  wisdom,  and  a  thirst  for  improvement, 
beyond  what  any  books  ever  could  have  produced. 
It  excites  our  astonishment  to  see  a  force  of  intel- 
lect so  truly  divine,  a  particle  of  celestial  flame  so 
resplendently  pure,  in  a  region  so  remote  ;  of 
which  an  atmosphere,  so  darkened  with  clouds, 
and  so  chilled  with  frosts,  could  not  extinguish  the 
light,  nor  repress  the  operations.  The  rocky  and 
barren  soil,  which  is  often  as  unfavorable  to  the 
growth  of  genius  as  of  plants,  has  not  impeded 
the  maturation  of  your  faculties  ;  and  that  coun- 
try so  rich  in  metallic  ore,  which  appears  like  a 
cruel  step-mother  to  others,  seems  to  have  been  a 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  317 

fostering  parent  to  you  ;  and  after  the  most  stren- 
uous attempts  to  have  at  last  produced  a  progeny 
of  pure  gold.  I  would  invoke  you,  Christina !  as 
the  only  child  of  the  renowned  and  victorious  Adol- 
phus,  if  your  merit  did  not  as  much  eclipse  his,  as 
wisdom  excels  strength,  and  the  arts  of  peace  the 
havoc  of  war.  Henceforth,  the  queen  of  the 
South  will  not  be  alone  renowned  in  history ;  for 
there  is  a  queen  of  the  north,  who  would  not  only 
be  worthy  to  appear  in  the  court  of  the  wise  King 
of  the  Jews,  or  any  king  of  equal  wisdom ;  but  to 
whose  court  others  may  from  all  parts  repair,  to 
behold  so  fair  a  heroine,  so  bright  a  pattern  of 
all  the  royal  virtues ;  and  to  the  crown  of  whose 
praise  this  may  well  be  added,  that,  neither  in  her 
conduct  nor  her  appearance,  is  there  any  of  the 
forbidding  reserve,  or  the  ostentatious  parade,  of 
royalty.  She  herself  seems  the  least  conscious  of 
her  own  attributes  of  sovereignty ;  and  her  thoughts 
are  always  fixed  on  something  greater  and  more 
sublime  than  the  glitter  of  a  crown.  In  this  re- 
spect, her  example  may  well  make  innumerable 
kings  hide  their  diminished  heads.  She  may,  if 
such  is  the  fatality  of  the  Swedish  nation,  abdicate 
the  sovereignty,  but  she  can  never  lay  aside  the 
queen  ;  for  her  reign  has  proved  that  she  is  fit  to 

govern,  not  only  Sweden,  but  the  world 

I  must  therefore  crave  the  indulgence  of  the 
reader  if  I  have  said  already,  or  shall  say  hereafter, 
more  of  myself  than  I  wish  to  say ;  that,  if  I  can- 


318      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

not  prevent  the  blindness  of  my  eyes,  the  oblivion 
or  the  defamation  of  my  name,  I  may  at  least  rescue 
my  life  from  that  species  of  obscurity  which  is  the 
associate  of  unprincipled  depravity.  This  it  will  be 
necessary  for  me  to  do  on  more  accounts  than  one ; 
first,  that  so  many  good  and  learned  men  among 
the  neighboring  nations,  who  read  my  works,  may 
not  be  induced  by  this  fellow's  calumnies  to  alter 
the  favorable  opinion  which  they  have  formed  of 
me  ;  but  may  be  persuaded  that  I  am  not  one  who 
ever  disgraced  beauty  of  sentiment  by  deformity 
of  conduct,  or  the  maxims  of  a  freeman  by  the 
actions  of  a  slave ;  and  that  the  whole  tenor  of  my 
life  has,  by  the  grace  of  God,  hitherto  been  unsul- 
lied by  enormity  or  crime.  Next,  that  those  illus- 
trious worthies,  who  are  the  objects  of  my  praise, 
may  know  that  nothing  could  afflict  me  with  more 
shame  than  to  have  any  vices  of  mine  diminish  the 
force  or  lessen  the  value  of  my  panegyric  upon 
them ;  and,  lastly,  that  the  people  of  England, 
whom  fate,  or  duty,  or  their  own  virtues,  have  in- 
cited me  to  defend,  may  be  convinced,  from  the 
purity  and  integrity  of  my  life,  that  my  defence, 
if  it  do  not  redound  to  their  honor,  can  never  be 
considered  as  their  disgrace.  I  will  now  mention 
who  and  whence  I  am.  I  was  born  at  London,  of 
an  honest  family  ;  my  father  was  distinguished  by 
the  undeviating  integrity  of  his  life  ;  my  mother, 
by  the  esteem  in  which  she  was  held,  and  the  alms 
which  she  bestowed.  My  father  destined  me  from 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  319 

a  child  to  the  pursuits  of  literature  ;  and  my  appetite 
for  knowledge  was  so  voracious,  that,  from  twelve 
years  of  age,  I  hardly  ever  left  my  studies,  or 
went  to  bed  before  midnight.  This  primarily  led 
to  my  loss  of  sight.  My  eyes  were  naturally 
weak,  and  I  was  subject  to  frequent  headaches ; 
which,  however,  could  not  chill  the  ardor  of  my 
curiosity,  or  retard  the  progress  of  my  improve- 
ment. My  father  had  me  daily  instructed  in  the 
grammar-school,  and  by  other  masters  at  home. 
He  then,  after  I  had  acquired  a  proficiency  in  va- 
rious languages,  and  had  made  a  considerable 
progress  in  philosophy,  sent  me  to  the  University 
of  Cambridge.  Here  I  passed  seven  years  in  the 
usual  course  of  instruction  and  study,  with  the  ap- 
probation of  the  good,  and  without  any  stain  upon 
my  character,  till  I  took  the  degree  of  Master  of 
Arts.  After  this  I  did  not,  as  the  miscreant  feigns, 
run  away  into  Italy,  but  of  my  own  accord  re- 
tired to  my  father's  house,  whither  I  was  accom- 
panied by  the  regrets  of  most  of  the  fellows  of 
the  college,  who  showed  me  no  common  marks  of 
friendship  and  esteem.  On  my  father's  estate, 
where  he  had  determined  to  pass  the  remainder 
of  his  days,  I  enjoyed  an  interval  of  uninterrupted 
leisure,  which  I  entirely  devoted  to  the  perusal  of 
the  Greek  and  Latin  classics ;  though  1  occasion- 
ally visited  the  metropolis,  either  for  the  sake  of 
purchasing  books,  or  of  learning  something  new 
in  mathematics  or  in  music,  in  which  I,  at  that 


320      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

time,  found  a  source  of  pleasure  and  amusement. 
In  this  manner  I  spent  five  years  till  my  mother's 
death.  I  then  became  anxious  to  visit  foreign 

C5 

parts,  and  particularly  Italy.  My  father  gave  me 
his  permission,  and  I  left  home  with  one  servant. 
On  my  departure,  the  celebrated  Henry  Wootton, 
who  had  long  been  King  James's  ambassador  at 
Venice,  gave  me  a  signal  proof  of  his  regard,  in 
an  elegant  letter  which  he  wrote,  breathing  not 
only  the  warmest  friendship,  but  containing  some 
maxims  of  conduct  which  I  found  very  useful  in 
my  travels.  The  noble  Thomas  Scudamore,  King 
Charles's  ambassador,  to  whom  I  carried  letters  of 
recommendation,  received  me  most  courteously  at 
Paris.  His  lordship  gave  me  a  card  of  introduc- 
tion to  the  learned  Hugo  Grotius,  at  that  time 
ambassador  from  the  queen  of  Sweden  to  the 
French  court ;  whose  acquaintance  I  anxiously  de- 
sired, and  to  whose  house  I  was  accompanied  by 
some  of  his  lordship's  friends.  A  few  days  after, 
when  I  set  out  for  Italy,  he  gave  me  letters  to  the 
English  merchants  on  my  route,  that  they  might 
show  me  any  civilities  in  their  power.  Taking 
ship  at  Nice,  I  arrived  at  Genoa,  and  afterwards 
visited  Leghorn,  Pisa,  and  Florence.  In  the  latter 
city,  which  I  have  always  more  particularly  es- 
teemed for  the  elegance  of  its  dialect,  its  genius, 
and  its  taste,  I  stopped  about  two  months  ;  when  I 
contracted  an  intimacy  with  many  persons  of  rank 
and  learning ;  and  was  a  constant  attendant  at 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  321 

their  literary  parties ;  a  practice  which  prevails 
there,  and  tends  so  much  to  the  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge, and  the  preservation  of  friendship.  No  time 
will  ever  abolish  the  agreeable  recollections  which 
I  cherish  of  Jacob  Gaddi,  Carolo  Dati,  Frescobal- 
do,  Cultellero,  Bonomatthai,  Clementillo,  Fran- 
cisco, and  many  others.  From  Florence  1  went 
to  Siena,  thence  to  Rome,  where,  after  I  had  spent 
about  two  months  in  viewing  the  antiquities  of 
that  renowned  city,  where  I  experienced  the  most 
friendly  attentions  from  Lucas  Holstein,  and  other 
learned  and  ingenious  men,  I  continued  my  route  to 
Naples.  There  I  was  introduced  by  a  certain  re- 
cluse, with  whom  I  had  traveUed  from  Rome,  to 
John  Baptista  Manso,  Marquis  of  Villa,  a  noble- 
man of  distinguished  rank  and  authority,  to  whom 
Torquato  Tasso,  the  illustrious  poet,  inscribed  his 
book  on  friendship.  During  my  stay,  he  gave  me 
singular  proofs  of  his  regard ;  he  himself  conduct- 
ed me  round  the  city,  and  to  the  palace  of  the 
viceroy ;  and  more  than  once  paid  me  a  visit  at  my 
lodgings.  On  my  departure  he  gravely  apologized 
for  not  having  shown  me  more  civility,  which  he 
said  he  had  been  restrained  from  doing,  because 
I  had  spoken  with  so  little  reserve  on  matters  of 
religion.  When  I  was  preparing  to  pass  over  into 
Sicily  and  Greece,  the  melancholy  intelligence 
which  I  received  of  the  civil  commotions  in  Eng- 
land made  me  alter  my  purpose ;  for  I  thought  it 
base  to  be  travelling  for  amusement  abroad,  while 
u*  u 


322      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

my  fellow-citizens  were  fighting  for  liberty  at 
home.  While  I  was  on  my  way  back  to  Rome, 
some  merchants  informed  me  that  the  English  Jes- 
uits had  formed  a  plot  against  me  if  I  returned  to 
Rome,  because  I  had  spoken  too  freely  on  religion  ; 
for  it  was  a  rule  which  I  laid  down  to  myself  in 
these  places,  never  to  be  the  first  to  begin  any  con- 
versation on  religion  ;  but  if  any  questions  were 
put  to  me  concerning  my  faith,  to  declare  it  with- 
out any  reserve  or  fear.  I,  nevertheless,  returned 
to  Rome.  I  took  no  steps  to  conceal  either  my  per- 
son or  my  character ;  and  for  about  the  space  of 
two  months  I  again  openly  defended,  as  I  had  done 
before,  the  reformed  religion  in  the  very  metropolis 
of  Popery.  By  the  favor  of  God,  I  got  safe  back 
to  Florence,  where  I  was  received  with  as  much 
affection  as  if  I  had  returned  to  my  native  coun- 
try. There  I  stopped  as  many  months  as  I  had 
•done  before,  except  that  I  made  an  excursion  for  a 
-few  days  to  Lucca ;  and,  crossing  the  Apennines, 
passed  through  Bologna  and  Ferrara  to  Venice. 
After  I  had  spent  a  month  in  surveying  the  curi- 
osities of  this  city,  and  put  on  board  a  ship  the 
books  which  I  had  collected  in  Italy,  I  proceeded 
through  Verona  and  Milan,  and  along  the  Leman 
lake  to  Geneva.  The  mention  of  this  city  brings 
to  my  recollection  the  slandering  More,  and  makes 
me  again  call  the  Deity  to  witness,  that  in  all  those 
places  in  which  vice  meets  with  so  little  discour- 
agement, and  is  practised  with  so  little  shame,  I 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  323 

never  once  deviated  from  the  paths  of  integrity 
and  virtue,  and  perpetually  reflected  that,  though 
my  conduct  might  escape  the  notice  of  men,  it 
could  not  elude  the  inspection  of  God.  At  Ge- 
neva I  held  daily  converses  with  John  Deodati, 
the  learned  Professor  of  Theology.  Then  pursuing 
my  former  route  through  France,  I  returned  to 
my  native  country,  after  an  absence  of  one  year 
and  about  three  months ;  at  the  time  when  Charles, 
having  broken  the  peace,  was  renewing  what  is 
called  the  Episcopal  war  with  the  Scots,  in  which 
the  royalists  being  routed  in  the  first  encounter, 
and  the  English  being  universally  and  justly  disaf- 
fected, the  necessity  of  his  affairs  at  last  obliged 
him  to  convene  a  Parliament.  As  soon  as  I  was 
able,  I  hired  a  spacious  house  in  the  city  for  my- 
self and  my  books ;  where  I  again  with  rapture 
renewed  my  literary  pursuits,  and  where  I  calmly 
awaited  the  issue  of  the  contest,  which  I  trusted 
to  the  wise  conduct  of  Providence,  and  to  the 
courage  of  the  people.  The  vigor  of  the  Parlia- 
ment had  begun  to  humble  the  pride  of  the  bish- 
ops. As  long  as  the  liberty  of  speech  was  no 
longer  subject  to  control,  all  mouths  began  to  be 
opened  against  the  bishops  ;  some  complained  of 
the  vices  of  the  individuals,  others  of  those  of  the 
order.  They  said  that  it  was  unjust  that  they 
alone  should  differ  from  the  model  of  other  re- 
formed churches;  that  the  government  of  the 
Church  should  be  according  to  the  pattern  of  other 


324      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

churches,  and  particularly  the  word  of  God.  This 
awakened  all  my  attention  and  my  zeal.  I  saw 
that  a  way  was  opening  for  the  establishment  of 
real  liberty ;  that  the  foundation  was  laying  for  the 
deliverance  of  man  from  the  yoke  of  slavery  and 
superstition  ;  that  the  principles  of  religion,  which 
were  the  first  objects  of  our  care,  would  exert  a 
salutary  influence  on  the  manners  and  constitution 
of  the  republic  ;  and  as  I  had  from  my  youth  stud- 
ied the  distinctions  between  religious  and  civil 
rights,  I  perceived  that  if  I  ever  wished  to  be  of 
use,  I  ought  at  least  not  to  be  wanting  to  my  coun- 
try, to  the  Church,  and  to  so  many  of  my  fellow- 
Christians,  in  a  crisis  of  so  much  danger ;  I  there- 
fore determined  to  relinquish  the  other  pursuits  in 
which  I  was  engaged,  and  to  transfer  the  whole 
force  of  my  talents  and  my  industry  to  this  one 
important  object.  I  accordingly  wrote  two  books 
to  a  friend  concerning  the  reformation  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Afterwards,  when  two  bish- 
ops of  superior  distinction  vindicated  their  priv- 
ileges against  some  principal  ministers,  I  thought 
that  on  those  topics,  to  the  consideration  of  which  I 
was  led  solely  by  my  love  of  truth,  and  my  rever- 
ence for  Christianity,  I  should  not  probably  write 
worse  than  those  who  were  contending  only  for 
their  own  emoluments  and  usurpations.  I  therefore 
answered  the  one  in  two  books,  of  which  the  first  is 
inscribed,  Concerning  Prelatical  Episcopacy,  and 
the  other,  Concerning  the  Mode  of  Ecclesiastical 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  325 

Government;  and  I  replied  to  the  other  in  some 
Animadversions,  and  soon  after  in  an  Apology. 
On  this  occasion  it  was  supposed  that  I  brought  a 
timely  succor  to  the  ministers,  who  were  hardly  a 
match  for  the  eloquence  of  their  opponents ;  and 
from  that  time  I  was  actively  employed  in  refuting 
any  answers  that  appeared.  When  the  bishops 
could  no  longer  resist  the  multitude  of  their  assail- 
ants, I  had  leisure  to  turn  my  thoughts  to  other  sub- 
jects ;  to  the  promotion  of  real  and  substantial  lib- 
erty ;  which  is  rather  to  be  sought  from  within 
than  from  without ;  and  whose  existence  depends, 
not  so  much  on  the  terror  of  the  sword,  as  on  so- 
briety of  conduct,  and  integrity  of  life.  When, 
therefore,  I  perceived  that  there  were  three  species 
of  liberty  which  are  essential  to  the  happiness  of 
social  life,  —  religious,  domestic,  and  civil ;  and  as  I 
had  already  written  concerning  the  first,  and  the 
magistrates  were  strenuously  active  in  obtaining 
the  third,  I  determined  to  turn  my  attention  to 
the  second,  or  the  domestic  species.  As  this 
seemed  to  involve  three  material  questions,  the 
conditions  of  the  conjugal  tie,  the  education  of  the 
children,  and  the  free  publication  of  the  thoughts, 
I  made  them  objects  of  distinct  consideration.  I 
explained  my  sentiments,  not  only  concerning  the 
solemnization  of  the  marriage,  but  the  dissolution, 
if  circumstances  rendered  it  necessary ;  and  I 
drew  my  arguments  from  the  divine  law,  which 
Christ  did  not  abolish,  or  publish  another  more 


326      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

grievous  than  that  of  Moses.  I  stated  my  own 
opinions,  and  those  of  others,  concerning  the  ex- 
clusive exception  of  fornication,  which  our  illustri- 
ous Selden  has  since,  in  his  Hebrew  Wife,  more 
copiously  discussed ;  for  he  in  vain  makes  a  vaunt 
of  liberty  in  the  senate  or  in  the  forum,  who  lan- 
guishes under  the  vilest  servitude,  to  an  inferior  at 
home.  On  this  subject,  therefore,  I  published 
some  books  which  were  more  particularly  necessa- 
ry at  that  time,  when  man  and  wife  were  often  the 
most  inveterate  foes,  when  the  man  often  stayed  to 
take  care  of  his  children  at  home,  while  the  moth- 
er of  the  family  was  seen  in  the  camp  of  the  ene- 
my, threatening  death  and  destruction  to  her  hus- 
band. I  then  discussed  the  principles  of  education 
in  a  summary  manner,  but  sufficiently  copious  for 
those  who  attend  seriously  to  the  subject ;  than 
which  nothing  can  be  more  necessary  to  principle 
the  minds  of  men  in  virtue,  the  only  genuine 
source  of  political  and  individual  liberty,  the  only 
true  safeguard  of  states,  the  bulwark  of  their  pros- 
perity and  renown.  Lastly,  I  wrote  my  Areopa- 
gitica,  in  order  to  deliver  the  press  from  the  re- 
straints with  which  it  was  encumbered,  that  the 
power  of  determining  what  was  true  and  what  was 
false,  what  ought  to  be  published  and  what  to  be 
suppressed,  might  no  longer  be  intrusted  to  a  few 
illiterate  and  illiberal  individuals,  who  refused  their 
sanction  to  any  work  which  contained  views  or 
sentiments  at  all  above  the  level  of  the  vulgar 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  327 

superstition.  On  the  last  species  of  civil  liberty, 
I  said  nothing,  because  I  saw  that  sufficient  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  it  by  the  magistrates  ;  nor  did  I 
write  anything  on  the  prerogative  of  the  crown, 
till  the  king,  voted  an  enemy  by  the  Parliament, 
and  vanquished  in  the  field,  was  summoned  before 
the  tribunal  which  condemned  him  to  lose  his 
head.  But  when,  at  length,  some  Presbyterian 
ministers,  who  had  formerly  been  the  most  bitter 
enemies  to  Charles,  became  jealous  of  the  growth 
of  the  Independents,  and  of  their  ascendency 
in  the  Parliament,  most  tumultuously  clamored 
against  the  sentence,  and  did  all  in  their  power  to 
prevent  the  execution,  though  they  were  not  an- 
gry, so  much  on  account  of  the  act  itself,  as  be- 
cause it  was  not  the  act  of  their  party ;  and  when 
they  dared  to  affirm,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Prot- 
estants, and  of  all  the  reformed  churches,  was 
abhorrent  to  such  an  atrocious  proceeding  against 
kings  ;  I  thought  that  it  became  me  to  oppose  such 
a  glaring  falsehood ;  and  accordingly,  without  any 
immediate  or  personal  application  to  Charles,  I 
showed,  in  an  abstract  consideration  of  the  ques-* 
tion,  what  might  lawfully  be  done  against  tyrants  ; 
and  in  support  of  what  I  advanced,  produced  the 
opinions  of  the  most  celebrated  divines ;  while  I 
vehemently  inveighed  against  the  egregious  igno- 
rance or  effrontery  of  men,  who  professed  better 
things,  and  from  whom  better  things  might  have 
been  expected.  That  book  did  not  make  its  ap- 


328      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

pearance  till  after  the  death  of  Charles ;  and  was 
written  rather  to  reconcile  the  minds  of  the  people 
to  the  event,  than  to  discuss  the  legitimacy  of  that 
particular  sentence  which  concerned  the  magis- 
trates, and  which  was  already  executed.  Such 
were  the  fruits  of  my  private  studies,  which  I  gra- 
tuitously presented  to  the  church  and  to  the  state : 
and  for  which  I  was  recompensed  by  nothing  but 
impunity  ;  though  the  actions  themselves  procured 
me  peace  of  conscience,  and  the  approbation  of  the 
good ;  while  I  exercised  that  freedom  of  discussion 
which  I  loved.  Others,  without  labor  or  desert, 
got  possession  of  honors  and  emoluments  ;  but  no 
one  ever  knew  me  either  soliciting  anything  my- 
self or  through  the  medium  of  my  friends,  ever 
beheld  me  in  a  supplicating  posture  at  the  doors 
of  the  senate,  or  the  levees  of  the  great.  I  usually 
kept  myself  secluded  at  home,  where  my  own 
property,  part  of  which  had  been  withheld  during 
the  civil  commotions,  and  part  of  which  had  been 
absorbed  in  the  oppressive  contributions  which  I 
had  to  sustain,  afforded  me  a  scanty  subsistence. 
When  I  was  released  from  these  engagements,  and 
thought  that  I  was  about  to  enjoy  an  interval  of 
uninterrupted  ease,  I  turned  my  thoughts  to  a  con- 
tinued history  of  my  country,  from  the  earliest 
times  to  the  present  period.  I  had  already  finished 
four  books,  when,  after  the  subversion  of  the  mon- 
archy, and  the  establishment  of  a  republic,  I  was 
surprised  by  an  invitation  from  the  Council  of  State, 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  329 

who  desired  my  services  in  the  office  for  foreign  af- 
fairs. A  book  appeared  soon  after,  which  was  as- 
cribed to  the  king,  and  contained  the  most  in- 
vidious charges  against  the  Parliament.  I  was 
ordered  to  answer  it ;  and  opposed  the  Iconoclast 
to  his  Icon.  I  did  not  insult  over  fallen  majesty, 
as  is  pretended ;  I  only  preferred  Queen  Truth  to 
King  Charles.  The  charge  of  insult,  which  I  saw 
that  the  malevolent  would  urge,  I  was  at  some  pains 
to  remove  in  the  beginning  of  the  work :  and  as  often 
as  possible  in  other  places.  Salmasius  then  ap- 
peared, to  whom  they  were  not,  as  More  says, 
long  in  looking  about  for  an  opponent,  but  imme- 
diately appointed  me,  who  happened  at  the  time  to 
be  present  in  the  council.  I  have  thus,  sir,  given 
some  account  of  myself,  in  order  to  stop  your 
mouth,  and  to  remove  any  prejudices  which  your 
falsehoods  and  misrepresentations  might  cause  even 
good  men  to  entertain  against  me.  I  tell  thee  then, 
thou  mass  of  corruption,  to  hold  thy  peace  ;  for  the 
more  you  malign,  the  more  you  will  compel  me  to 
confute ;  which  will  only  serve  to  render  your  in- 
iquity more  glaring,  and  my  integrity  more  mani- 
fest  

John  Bradshaw  (a  name  which  will  be  repeated 
with  applause  wherever  liberty  is  cherished  or  is 
known)  was  sprung  from  a  noble  family.  All  his 
early  life  he  sedulously  employed  in  making  him- 
self acquainted  with  the  laws  of  his  country ;  he 
then  practised  with  singular  success  and  reputation 


330      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

at  the  bar;  lie  showed  himself  an  intrepid  and 
unwearied  advocate  for  the  liberties  of  the  people : 
he  took  an  active  part  in  the  most  momentous 
affairs  of  the  state,  and  occasionally  discharged  the 
functions  of  a  judge  with  the  most  inviolable  in- 
tegrity. At  last,  when  he  was  entreated  by  the 
Parliament  to  preside  in  the  trial  of  the  king,  he 
did  not  refuse  the  dangerous  office.  To  a  profound 
knowledge  of  the  law,  he  added  the  most  compre- 
hensive views,  the  most  generous  sentiments,  man- 
ners the  most  obliging  and  the  most  pure.  Hence 
he  discharged  that  office  with  a  propriety  almost 
without  a  parallel ;  he  inspired  both  respect  and 
awe  ;  and  though  menaced  by  the  daggers  of  so 
many  assassins,  he  conducted  himself  with  so  much 
consistency  and  gravity,  with  so  much  presence  of 
mind  and  so  much  dignity  of  demeanor,  that  he 
seems  to  have  been  purposely  destined  by  Provi- 
dence for  that  part  which  he  so  nobly  acted  on  the 
theatre  of  the  world.  And  his  glory  is  as  much 
exalted  above  that  of  all  other  tyrannicides,  as  it  is 
both  more  humane,  more  just,  and  more  strikingly 
grand,  judicially  to  condemn  a  tyrant,  than  to  put 
him  to  death  without  a  trial.  In  other  respects 
there  was  no  forbidding  austerity,  no  moroseness 
in  his  manner ;  he  was  courteous  and  benign  ;  but 
the  great  character  which  he  then  sustained,  he 
with  perfect  consistency  still  sustains,  so  that  you 
would  suppose  that  not  only  then,  but  in  every 
future  period  of  his  life,  he  was  sitting  in  judgment 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  331 

upon  the  king.  In  the  public  business  his  activity 
is  unwearied ;  and  he  alone  is  equal  to  a  host.  At 
home  his  hospitality  is  as  splendid  as  his  fortune 
will  permit :  in  his  friendships  there  is  the  most 
inflexible  fidelity ;  and  no  one  more  readily  discerns 
merit,  or  more  liberally  rewards  it.  Men  of  piety 
and  learning,  ingenious  persons  in  all  professions, 
those  who  have  been  distinguished  by  their  courage 
or  their  misfortunes,  are  free  to  participate  his 
bounty ;  and  if  they  want  not  his  bounty,  they  are 
sure  to  share  his  friendship  and  esteem.  He  never 
ceases  to  extol  the  merits  of  others,  or  to  conceal 
his  own ;  and  no  one  was  ever  more  ready  to  ac- 
cept the  excuses,  or  to  pardon  the  hostility,  of  his 
political  opponents.  If  he  undertake  to  plead  the 
cause  of  the  oppressed,  to  solicit  the  favor  or  depre- 
cate the  resentment  of  the  powerful,  to  reprove  the 
public  ingratitude  towards  any  particular  individual, 
his  address  and  his  perseverance  are  beyond  all 
praise.  On  such  occasions  no  one  could  desire  a 
patron  or  a  friend  more  able,  more  zealous,  or  more 
eloquent.  No  menace  could  divert  him  from  his 
purpose ;  no  intimidation  on  the  one  hand,  and  no 
promise  of  emolument  or  promotion  on  the  other, 
could  alter  the  serenity  of  his  countenance,  or 

shake  the  firmness  of  his  soul 

"  The  army  is  a  hydra-headed  monster  of  accu- 
mulated heresies."  Those  who  speak  the  truth, 
acknowledge  that  our  army  excels  all  others,  not 
only  in  courage,  but  in  virtue  and  in  piety.  Other 


332      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

camps  are  the  scenes  of  gambling,  swearing,  riot, 
and  debauchery ;  in  ours,  the  troops  employ  what 
leisure  they  have  in  searching  the  Scriptures  and 
hearing  the  word ;  nor  is  there  one  who  thinks  it 
more  honorable  to  vanquish  the  enemy  than  to 
propagate  the  truth  ;  and  they  not  only  carry  on  a 
military  warfare  against  their  enemies,  but  an 
evangelical  one  against  themselves.  And  indeed 
if  we  consider  the  proper  objects  of  war,  what  em- 
ployment can  be  more  becoming  soldiers,  who  are 
raised  to  defend  the  laws,  to  be  the  support  of  our 
political  and  religious  institutions  ?  Ought  they 
not  then  to  be  less  conspicuous  for  ferocity  than 
for  the  civil  and  the  softer  virtues,  and  to  consider 
it  as  their  true  and  proper  destination,  not  merely 
to  sow  the  seeds  of  strife,  and  reap  the  harvest  of 
destruction,  but  to  procure  peace  and  security  for 
the  whole  human  race?  If  there  be  any  who, 
either  from  the  mistakes  of  others,  or  the  infirmities 
of  their  own  minds,  deviate  from  these  noble  ends, 
we  ought  not  to  punish  them  with  the  sword,  but 
rather  labor  to  reform  them  by  reason,  by  admo- 
nition, by  pious  supplications  to  God,  to  whom 
alone  it  belongs  to  dispel  all  the  errors  of  the  mind, 
and  to  impart  to  whom  he  will  the  celestial  light 
of  truth.  We  approve  no  heresies  which  are  truly 
such ;  we  do  not  even  tolerate  some  ;  we  wish 
them  extirpated,  but  by  those  means  which  are 
best  suited  to  the  purpose,  —  by  reason  and  instruc- 
tion, the  only  safe  remedies  for  disorders  of  the 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  333 

mind ;  and  not  by  the  knife  or  the  scourge,  as  if 

they  were  seated  in  the  body 

Oliver  Cromwell  was  sprung  from  a  line  of  illus- 
trious ancestors,  who  were  distinguished  for  the 
civil  functions  which  they  sustained  under  the 
monarchy,  and  still  more  for  the  part  which  they 
took  in  restoring  and  establishing  true  religion  in 
this  country.  In  the  vigor  and  maturity  of  his 
life,  which  he  passed  in  retirement,  he  was  con- 
spicuous for  nothing  more  than  for  the  strictness 
of  his  religious  habits,  and  the  innocence  of  his 
life  ;  and  he  had  tacitly  cherished  in  his  breast  that 
flame  of  piety  which  was  afterwards  to  stand  him 
in  so  much  stead  on  the  greatest  occasions,  and  in 
the  most  critical  exigencies.  In  the  last  Parlia- 
ment which  was  called  by  the  king,  he  was  elected 
to  represent  his  native  town,  when  he  soon  became 
distinguished  by  the  justness  of  his  opinions,  and 
the  vigor  and  decision  of  his  councils.  When  the 
sword  was  drawn,  he  offered  his  services,  and  was 
appointed  to  a  troop  of  horse,  whose  numbers  were 
soon  increased  by  the  pious  and  the  good,  who 
flocked  from  all  quarters  to  his  standard ;  and  in  a 
short  time  he  almost  surpassed  the  greatest  gen- 
erals in  the  magnitude  and  the  rapidity  of  his 
achievements.  Nor  is  this  surprising ;  for  he  was 
a  soldier  disciplined  to  perfection  in  the  knowledge 
of  himself.  He  had  either  extinguished,  or  by 
habit  had  learned  to  subdue,  the  whole  host  of 
vain  hopes,  fears,  and  passions,  which  infest  the 


334      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

soul.  He  first  acquired  the  government  of  him- 
self, and  over  himself  acquired  the  most  signal  vic- 
tories; so  that  on  the  first  day  he  took  the  field 
against  the  external  enemy,  he  was  a  veteran  in 
arms,  consummately  practised  in  the  toils  and  exi- 
gencies of  war.  It  is  not  possible  for  me,  in  the 
narrow  limits  in  which  I  circumscribe  myself  on 
this  occasion,  to  enumerate  the  many  towns  which 
he  has  taken,  the  many  battles  which  he  has  won. 
The  whole  surface  of  the  British  empire  has  been 
the  scene  of  his  exploits,  and  the  theatre  of  his 
triumphs ;  which  alone  would  furnish  ample  ma- 
terials for  a  history,  and  want  a  copiousness  of 
narration  not  inferior  to  the  magnitude  and  diver- 
sity of  the  transactions.  This  alone  seems  to  be  a 
sufficient  proof  of  his  extraordinary  and  almost 
supernatural  virtue,  that  by  the  vigor  of  his  genius, 
or  the  excellence  of  his  discipline,  adapted,  not 
more  to  the  necessities  of  war  than  to  the  precepts 
of  Christianity,  the  good  and  the  brave  were  from 
all  quarters  attracted  to  his  camp,  not  only  as  to 
the  best  school  of  military  talents,  but  of  piety 
and  virtue ;  and  that  during  the  whole  war,  and 
the  occasional  intervals  of  peace,  amid  so  many 
vicissitudes  of  faction  and  of  events,  he  retained 
and  still  retains  the  obedience  of  his  troops,  not  by 
largesses  or  indulgence,  but  by  his  sole  authority 
and  the  regularity  of  his  pay.  In  this  instance  his 
fame  may  rival  that  of  Cyrus,  of  Epaminondas,  or 
any  of  the  great  generals  of  antiquity.  Hence  he 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  335 

collected  an  army  as  numerous  and  as  well  equipped 
as  any  one  ever  did  in  so  short  a  time  ;  which  was 
uniformly  obedient  to  his  orders,  and  dear  to  the 
affections  of  the  citizens ;  which  was  formidable  to 
the  enemy  in  the  field,  but  never  cruel  to  those 
who  laid  down  their  arms ;  which  committed  no 
lawless  ravages  on  the  persons  or  the  property  of 
the  inhabitants ;  who,  when  they  compared  their 
conduct  with  the  turbulence,  the  intemperance,  the 
impiety,  and  the  debauchery  of  the  royalists,  were 
wont  to  salute  them  as  friends,  and  to  consider  them 
as  guests.  They  were  a  stay  to  the  good,  a  terror 
to  the  evil,  and  the  warmest  advocates  for  every 
exertion  of  piety  and  virtue.  Nor  would  it  be 
right  to  pass  over  the  name  of  Fairfax,  who  united 
the  utmost  fortitude  with  the  utmost  courage ;  and 
the  spotless  innocence  of  whose  life  seemed  to 
point  him  out  as  the  peculiar  favorite  of  Heaven. 
Justly,  indeed,  may  you  be  excited  to  receive  this 
wreath  of  praise  ;  though  you  have  retired  as  much 
as  possible  from  the  world,  and  seek  those  shades 
of  privacy  which  were  the  delight  of  Scipio.  Nor 
was  it  only  the  enemy  whom  you  subdued,  but  you 
have  triumphed  over  that  flame  of  ambition  and 
that  lust  of  glory  which  are  wont  to  make  the  best 
and  the  greatest  of  men  their  slaves.  The  purity 
of  your  virtues  and  the  splendor  of  your  actions 
consecrate  those  sweets  of  ease  which  you  enjoy, 
and  which  constitute  the  wished-for  haven  of  the 
toils  of  man.  Such  was  the  ease  which,  when  the 


336      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

heroes  of  antiquity  possessed,  after  a  life  of  exertion 
and  glory  not  greater  than  yours,  the  poets,  .in  de- 
spair of  finding  ideas  or  expressions  better  suited 
to  the  subject,  feigned  that  they  were  received  into 
heaven,  and  invited  to  recline  at  the  tables  of  the 
gods.  But  whether  it  were  your  health,  which  I 
principally  believe,  or  any  other  motive  which 
caused  you  to  retire,  of  this  I  am  convinced,  that 
nothing  could  have  induced  you  to  relinquish  the 
service  of  your  country,  if  you  had  not  known 
that  in  your  successor  liberty  would  meet  with  a 
protector,  and  England  with  a  stay  to  its  safety, 
and  a  pillar  to  its  glory.  For  while  you,  O  Crom- 
well, are  left  among  us,  he  hardly  shows  a  proper 
confidence  in  the  Supreme,  who  distrusts  the  se- 
curity of  England  ;  when  he  sees  that  you  are  in 
so  special  a  manner  the  favored  object  of  the  divine 
regard.  But  there  was  another  department  of  the 
war,  which  was  destined  for  your  exclusive  exer- 
tions. 

Without  entering  into  any  length  of  detail,  I 
will,  if  possible,  describe  some  of  the  most  mem- 
orable actions,  with  as  much  brevity  as  you  per- 
formed them  with  celerity.  After  the  loss  of  all 
Ireland,  with  the  exception  of  one  city,  you  in  one 
battle  immediately  discomfited  the  forces  of  the 
rebels ;  and  were  busily  employed  in  settling  the 
country,  when  you  were  suddenly  recalled  to  the 
war  in  Scotland.  Hence  you  proceeded  with  un- 
wearied diligence  against  the  Scots,  who  were  on 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.     337 

the  point  of  making  an  irruption  into  England 
with  the  king  in  their  train:  and  in  about  the 
space  of  one  year  you  entirely  subdued,  and  added 
to  the  English  dominion,  that  kingdom  which  all 
our  monarchs,  during  a  period  of  eight  hundred 
years,  had  in  vain  struggled  to  subject.  In  one 
battle  you  almost  annihilated  the  remainder  of 
their  forces,  who,  in  a  fit  of  desperation,  had  made 
a  sudden  incursion  into  England,  then  almost  des- 
titute of  garrisons,  and  got  as  far  as  Worcester ; 
where  you  came  up  with  them  by  forced  marches, 
and  captured  almost  the  whole  of  their  nobility. 
A  profound  peace  ensued ;  when  we  found,  though 
indeed  not  then  for  the  first  time,  that  you  were  as 
wise  in  the  cabinet  as  valiant  in  the  field.  It  was 
your  constant  endeavor  in  the  Senate  either  to 
induce  them  to  adhere  to  those  treaties  which  they 
had  entered  into  with  the  enemy,  or  speedily  to 
adjust  others  which  promised  to  be  beneficial  to 
the  country.  But  when  you  saw  that  the  business 
was  artfully  procrastinated,  that  every  one  was 
more  intent  on  his  own  selfish  interest  than  on  the 
public  good,  that  the  people  complained  of  the  dis- 
appointments which  they  had  experienced,  and  the 
fallacious  promises  by  which  they  had  been  gulled, 
that  they  were  the  dupes  of  a  few  overbearing 
individuals,  you  put  an  end  to  their  domination. 
A  new  Parliament  is  summoned ;  and  the  right  of 
election  given  to  those  to  whom  it  was  expedient. 
They  meet;  but  do  nothing;  and,  after  having 
15  v 


338      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

wearied  themselves  by  their  mutual  dissensions, 
and  fully  exposed  their  incapacity  to  the  observa- 
tion of  the  country,  they  consent  to  a  voluntary 
dissolution.  In  this  state  of  desolation,  to  which 
we  were  reduced,  you,  O  Cromwell !  alone  re- 
mained to  conduct  the  government,  and  to  save 
the  country.  We  all  willingly  yield  the  palm  of 
sovereignty  to  your  unrivalled  ability  and  virtue, 
except  the  few  among  us,  who,  either  ambitious  of 
honors  which  they  have  not  the  capacity  to  sustain, 
or  who  envy  those  which  are  conferred  on  one 
more  worthy  than  themselves,  or  else  who  do  not 
know  that  nothing  in  the  world  is  more  pleasing  to 
God,  more  agreeable  to  reason,  more  politically 
just,  or  more  generally  useful,  than  that  the  su- 
preme power  should  be  vested  in  the  best  and  the 
wisest  of  men.  Such,  O  Cromwell,  all  acknowl- 
edge you  to  be ;  such  are  the  services  which  you 
have  rendered,  as  the  leader  of  our  councils,  the 
general  of  our  armies,  and  the  father  of  your  coun- 
try. For  this  is  the  tender  appellation  by  which 
all  the  good  among  us  salute  you  from  the  very 
soul.  Other  names  you  neither  have  nor  could 
endure ;  and  you  deservedly  reject  that  pomp  of 
title  which  attracts  the  gaze  and  admiration  of  the 
multitude.  For  what  is  a  title  but  a  certain  definite 
mode  of  dignity  ;  but  actions  such  as  yours  surpass, 
not  only  the  bounds  of  our  admiration,  but  our 
titles ;  and,  like  the  points  of  pyramids,  which  are 
lost  in  the  clouds,  they  soar  above  the  possibilities 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  339 

of  titular  commendation.     But  since,  though  it  be 

*  O 

not  fit,  it  may  be  expedient,  that  the  highest  pitch 
of  virtue  should  be  circumscribed  within  the  bounds 
of  some  human  appellation,  you  endured  to  receive, 
for  the  public  good,  a  title  most  like  to  that  of  the 
father  of  your  country ;  not  to  exalt,  but  rather  to 
bring  you  nearer  to  the  level  of  ordinary  men ; 
the  title  of  king  was  unworthy  the  transcendent 
majesty  of  your  character.  For  if  you  had  been 
captivated  by  a  name  over  which,  as  a  private 
man,  you  had  so  completely  triumphed  and  crum- 
bled into  dust,  you  would  have  been  doing  the  same 
thing  as  if,  after  having  subdued  some  idolatrous 
nation  by  the  help  of  the  true  God,  you  should 
afterwards  fall  down  and  worship  the  gods  which 
you  had  vanquished.  Do  you  then,  sir,  continue 
your  course  with  the  same  unrivalled  magnanimity ; 
it  sits  well  upon  you ;  —  to  you  our  country  owes 
its  liberties;  nor  can  you  sustain  a  character  at 
once  more  momentous  and  more  august  than  that 
of  the  author,  the  guardian,  and  the  preserver  of 
our  liberties  ;  and  hence  you  have  not  only  eclipsed 
the  achievements  of  all  our  kings,  but  even  those 
which  have  been  fabled  of  our  heroes.  Often 
reflect  what  a  dear  pledge  the  beloved  land  of 
your  nativity  has  intrusted  to  your  care  ;  and  that 
liberty  which  she  once  expected  only  from  the 
chosen  flower  of  her  talents  and  her  virtues,  she 
now  expects  from  you  only,  and  by  you  only  hopes 
to  obtain.  Revere  the  fond  expectations  which 


340      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

we  cherish,  the  solicitudes  of  your  anxious  coun- 
try; revere  the  looks  and  the  wounds  of  your 
brave  companions  in  arms,  who,  under  your  ban- 
ners, have  so  strenuously  fought  for  liberty ;  revere 
the  shades  of  those  who  perished  in  the  contest ; 
revere  also  the  opinions  and  the  hopes  which  for- 
eign states  entertain  concerning  us,  who  promise 
to  themselves  so  many  advantages  from  that  liberty 
which  we  have  so  bravely  acquired,  from  the  estab- 
lishment of  that  new  government  which  has  begun 
to  shed  its  splendor  on  the  world,  which,  if  it  be 
suffered  to  vanish  like  a  dream,  would  involve  us 
in  the  deepest  abyss  of  shame ;  and  lastly,  revere 
yourself ;  and,  after  having  endured  so  many  suffer- 
ings and  encountered  so  many  perils  for  the  sake 
of  liberty,  do  not  suffer  it,  now  it  is  obtained,  either 
to  be  violated  by  yourself,  or  in  any  one  instance 
impaired  by  others.  You  cannot  be  truly  free  un- 
less we  are  free  too;  for  such  is  the  nature  of 
things,  that  he  who  entrenches  on  the  liberty  of 
others,  is  the  first  to  lose  his  own  and  become  a 
slave.  But  if  you,  who  have  hitherto  been  the 
patron  and  tutelary  genius  of  liberty,  if  you,  who 
are  exceeded  by  no  one  in  justice,  in  piety,  and 
goodness,  should  hereafter  invade  that  liberty  which 
you  have  defended,  your  conduct  must  be  fatally 
operative,  not  only  against  the  cause  of  liberty, 
but  the  general  interests  of  piety  and  virtue.  Your 
integrity  and  virtue  will  appear  to  have  evaporated ; 
your  faith  in  religion  to  have  been  small ;  your 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  341 

character  with  posterity  will  dwindle  into  insignifi- 
cance, by  which  a  most  destructive  blow  will  be 
levelled  against  the  happiness  of  mankind.  The 
work  which  you  have  undertaken  is  of  incalculable 
moment,  which  will  thoroughly  sift  and  expose 
every  principle  and  sensation  of  your  heart,  which 
will  fully  display  the  vigor  and  genius  of  your 
character,  which  will  evince  whether  you  really 
possess  those  great  qualities  of  piety,  fidelity,  jus- 
tice, and  self-denial,  which  made  us  believe  that 
you  were  elevated  by  the  special  direction  of  the 
Deity  to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  power.  At  once 
wisely  and  discreetly  to  hold  the  sceptre  over  three 
powerful  nations,  to  persuade  people  to  relinquish 
inveterate  and  corrupt  for  new  and  more  beneficial 
maxims  and  institutions,  to  penetrate  into  the 
remotest  parts  of  the  country,  to  have  the  mind 
present  and  operative  in  every  quarter,  to  watch 
against  surprise,  to  provide  against  danger,  to  re- 
ject the  blandishments  of  pleasure  and  pomp  of 
power ;  —  these  are  exertions  compared  with  which 
the  labor  of  war  is  mere  pastime ;  which  will  re- 
quire every  energy  and  employ  every  faculty  that 
you  possess  ;  which  demand  a  man  supported  from 
above,  and  almost  instructed  by  immediate  inspira- 
tion. These  and  more  than  these  are,  no  doulbt, 
the  objects  which  occupy  your  attention  and  en- 
gross your  soul ;  as  well  as  the  means  by  which 
you  may  accomplish  these  important  ends,  and 
render  our  liberty  at  once  more  ample  and  more 


342      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

secure.  And  this  you  can,  in  my  opinion,  in  no 
other  way  so  readily  effect,  as  by  associating  in 
your  councils  the  companions  of  your  dangers  and 
your  toils ;  men  of  exemplary  modesty,  integrity, 
and  courage ;  whose  hearts  have  not  been  hard- 

O       * 

ened  in  cruelty,  and  rendered  insensible  to  pity  by 
the  sight  of  so  much  ravage  and  so  much  death, 
but  whom  it  has  rather  inspired  with  the  love  of 
justice,  with  a  respect  for  religion,  and  with  the 
feeling  of  compassion,  and  who  are  more  zealously 
interested  in  the  preservation  of  liberty,  in  propor- 
tion as  they  have  encountered  more  perils  in  its 
defence.  They  are  not  strangers  or  foreigners,  a 
hireling  rout  scraped  together  from  the  dregs  of 
the  people,  but,  for  the  most  part,  men  of  the  bet- 
ter conditions  in  life,  of  families  not  disgraced  if 
not  ennobled,  of  fortunes  either  ample  or  mod- 
erate ;  and  what  if  some  among  them  are  recom- 
mended by  their  poverty  ?  for  it  was  not  the  lust 
of  ravage  which  brought  them  into  the  field ;  it 
was  the  calamitous  aspect  of  the  times,  which,  in 
the  most  critical  circumstances,  and  often  amid  the 
most  disastrous  turn  of  fortune,  roused  them  to 
attempt  the  deliverance  of  their  country  from  the 
fangs  of  despotism.  They  were  men  prepared,  not 
only  to  debate,  but  to  fight ;  not  only  to  argue  in 
the  Senate,  but  to  engage  the  enemy  in  the  field. 
But  unless  we  will  continually  cherish  indefinite 
and  illusory  expectations,  I  see  not  in  whom  we 
can  place  any  confidence,  if  not  in  these  men  and 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  343 

such  as  these.  We  have  the  surest  and  most  in- 
dubitable pledge  of  their  fidelity  in  this,  that  they 
have  already  exposed  themselves  to  death  in  the 
service  of  their  country ;  of  their  piety  in  this,  that 
they  have  been  always  wont  to  ascribe  the  whole 
glory  of  their  successes  to  the  favor  of  the  Deity, 
whose  help  they  have  so  suppliantly  implored,  and 
so  conspicuously  obtained  ;  of  their  justice  in  this, 
that  they  even  brought  the  king  to  trial,  and  when 
his  guilt  was  proved,  refused  to  save  his  life ;  of 
their  moderation  in  our  own  uniform  experience 
of  its  effects,  and  because,  if  by  any  outrage,  they 
should  disturb  the  peace  which  they  have  procured, 
they  themselves  will  be  the  first  to  feel  the  miseries 
which  it  will  occasion,  the  first  to  meet  the  havoc 
of  the  sword,  and  the  first  again  to  risk  their  lives 
for  all  those  comforts  and  distinctions  which  they 
have  so  happily  acquired  ;  and  lastly,  of  their  forti- 
tude in  this,  that  there  is  no  instance  of  any  people 
who  ever  recovered  their  liberty  with  so  much 
courage  and  success ;  and  therefore  let  us  not  sup- 
pose, that  there  can  be  any  persons  who  will  be 
more  zealous  in  preserving  it.  I  now  feel  myself 
irresistibly  compelled  to  commemorate  the  names 
of  some  of  those  who  have  most  conspicuously  sig- 
nalized themselves  in  these  times :  and  first  thine, 
O  Fleetwood !  whom  I  have  known  from  a  boy,  to 
the  present  blooming  maturity  of  your  military 
fame,  to  have  been  inferior  to  none  in  humanity, 
in  gentleness,  in  benignity  of  disposition,  whose 


344      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

intrepidity  in  the  combat,  and  whose  clemency  in 
victory,  have  been  acknowledged  even  by  the 
enemy :  next  thine,  O  Lambert !  who,  with  a  mere 
handful  of  men,  checked  the  progress,  and  sustained 
the  attack,  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  who  was  at- 
tended by  the  whole  flower  and  vigor  of  the 
Scottish  vouth :  next  thine,  O  Desborough !  and 

v 

thine,  0  Hawley !  who  wast  always  conspicuous  in 
the  heat  of  the  combat,  and  the  thickest  of  the  fight : 
thine,  O  Overton !  who  hast  been  most  endeared 
to  me  now  for  so  many  years  by  the  similitude 
of  our  studies,  the  suavity  of  your  manners,  and 
the  more  than  fraternal  sympathy  of  our  hearts ; 
you  who,  in  the  memorable  battle  of  Marston  Moor, 
when  our  left  wing  was  put  to  the  rout,  were  be- 
held with  admiration,  making  head  against  the 
enemy  with  your  infantry  and  repelling  his  attack, 
amid  the  thickest  of  the  carnage  :  and  lastly  you, 
who,  in  the  Scotch  war,  when  under  the  auspices 
of  Cromwell,  occupied  the  coast  of  Fife,  opened  a 
passage  beyond  Stirling,  and  made  the  Scotch  of 
the  west,  and  of  the  north,  and  even  the  remotest 
Orkneys,  confess  your  humanity,  and  submit  to 
your  power.  Besides  these,  I  will  mention  some  as 
celebrated  for  their  political  wisdom  and  their  civil 
virtues,  whom  you,  sir,  have  admitted  into  your 
councils,  and  who  are  known  to  me  by  friendship 
or  by  fame.  Whitlocke,  Pickering,  Strickland, 
Sydenham,  Sydney  (a  name  indissolubly  attached 
to  the  interests  of  liberty),  Montacute,  Laurence, 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  345 

both  of  highly  cultivated  minds  and  polished  taste  ; 
besides  many  other  citizens  of  singular  merit,  some 
of  whom  were  distinguished  by  their  exertions  in 
the  senate,  and  others  in  the  field.  To  these  men, 
whose  talents  are  so  splendid,  and  whose  worth 
has  been  so  thoroughly  tried,  you  would  without 
doubt  do  right  to  trust  the  protection  of  our  liber- 
ties ;  nor  would  it  be  easy  to  say  to  whom  they 
might  more  safely  be  intrusted.  Then,  if  you 
leave  the  Church  to  its  own  government,  and  re- 
lieve yourself  and  the  other  public  functionaries 
from  a  charge  so  onerous,  and  so  incompatible  with 
your  functions ;  and  will  no  longer  suffer  two  pow- 
ers, so  different  as  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical,  to 
commit  fornication  together,  and  by  their  mutual 
and  delusive  aids  in  appearance  to  strengthen,  but 
in  reality  to  weaken  and  finally  to  subvert,  each 
other ;  if  you  shall  remove  all  power  of  persecution 
out  of  the  Church,  (but  persecution  will  never 
cease,  so  long  as  men  are  bribed  to  preach  the  Gos- 
pel by  a  mercenary  salary,  which  is  forcibly  extorted, 
rather  than  gratuitously  bestowed,  which  serves 
only  to  poison  religion  and  to  strangle  truth,)  you 
will  then  effectually  have  cast  those  money-changers 
out  of  the  temple,  who  do  not  merely  truckle  with 
doves  but  with  the  Dove  itself,  with  the  Spirit  of 
the  Most  High.  Then,  since  there  are  often  in  a 
republic  men  who  have  the  same  itch  for  making  a 
multiplicity  of  laws  as  some  poetasters  have  for 
making  many  verses,  and  since  laws  are  usually 

15* 


346      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

worse  in  proportion  as  they  are  more  numerous,  if 
you  shall  not  enact  so  many  new  laws  as  you  abol- 
ish old,  which  do  not  operate  so  much  as  warnings 
against  evil,  as  impediments  in  the  way  of  good ; 
and  if  you  shall  retain  only  those  which  are  neces- 
sary, which  do  not  confound  the  distinctions  of 
good  and  evil,  which  while  they  prevent  the  frauds 
of  the  wicked  do  not  prohibit  the  innocent  freedoms 
of  the  good,  which  punish  crimes,  without  inter- 
dicting those  things  which  are  lawful  only  on 
account  of  the  abuses  to  which  they  may  occa- 
sionally be  exposed.  For  the  intention  of  laws  is 
to  check  the  commission  of  vice ;  but  liberty  is  the 
best  school  of  virtue,  and  affords  the  strongest  en- 
couragements to  the  practice.  Then,  if  you  make 
a  better  provision  for  the  education  of  our  youth 
than  has  hitherto  been  made,  if  you  prevent  the 
promiscuous  instruction  of  the  docile  and  the  in- 
docile, of  the  idle  and  the  diligent,  at  the  public 
cost,  but  reserve  the  rewards  of  learning  for  the 
learned,  and  of  merit  for  the  meritorious ;  if  you 
permit  the  free  discussion  of  truth  without  any 
hazard  to  the  author,  or  any  subjection  to  the 
caprice  of  an  individual,  which  is  the  best  way  to 
make  truth  flourish  and  knowledge  abound,  the 
censure  of  the  half-learned,  the  envy,  the  pusil- 
lanimity, or  the  prejudice  which  measures  the 
discoveries  of  others,  and  in  short  every  degree  of 
wisdom,  by  the  measure  of  its  own  capacity,  will 
be  prevented  from  doling  out  information  to  us 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  347 

according  to  their  own  arbitrary  choice.  Lastly, 
if  you  shall  not  dread  to  hear  any  truth  or  any 
falsehood,  whatever  it  may  be,  but  if  you  shall 
least  of  all  listen  to  those  who  think  that  they  can 
never  be  free  till  the  liberties  of  others  depend 
on  their  caprice,  and  who  attempt  nothing  with 
so  much  zeal  and  vehemence  as  to  fetter,  not  only 
the  bodies  but  the  minds  of  men,  who  labor  to 
introduce  into  the  state  the  worst  of  all  tyrannies, 
the  tyranny  of  their  own  depraved  habits  and  per- 
nicious opinions ;  you  will  always  be  dear  to  those 
who  think  not  merely  that  their  own  sect  or  fac- 
tion, but  that  all  citizens  of  all  descriptions,  should 
enjoy  equal  rights  and  equal  laws.  If  there  be 
any  one  who  thinks  that  this  is  not  liberty  enough, 
he  appears  to  me  to  be  rather  inflamed  with  the 
lust  of  ambition  or  of  anarchy,  than  with  the  love 
of  a  genuine  and  well-regulated  liberty ;  and  par- 
ticularly since  the  circumstances  of  the  country, 
which  have  been  so  convulsed  by  the  storms  of 
faction,  which  are  yet  hardly  still,  do  not  permit 
us  to  adopt  a  more  perfect  or  desirable  form  of 
government. 

For  it  is  of  no  little  consequence  O  citizens,  by 
what  principles  you  are  governed,  either  in  acquir- 
ing liberty,  or  in  attaining  it  when  acquired.  And 
unless  that  liberty,  which  is  of  such  a  kind  as  arms 
can  neither  procure  nor  take  away,  which  alone  is 
the  fruit  of  piety,  of  justice,  of  temperance,  and  un- 
adulterated virtue,  shall  have  taken  deep  root  in 


348      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

your  minds  and  hearts,  there  will  not  long  be 
wanting  one  who  will  snatch  from  you  by  treach- 
ery what  you  have  acquired  by  arms.  War  has 
made  many  great  whom  peace  makes  small.  If, 
after  being  released  from  the  toils  of  war,  you  neg- 
lect the  arts  of  peace,  if  your  peace  and  your  lib- 
erty be  a  state  of  warfare,  if  war  be  your  only  vir- 
tue, the  summit  of  your  praise,  you  will,  believe 
me,  soon  find  peace  the  most  adverse  to  your  in- 
terests. Your  peace  will  be  only  a  more  distress- 
ing war  ;  and  that  which  you  imagined  liberty  will 
prove  the  worst  of  slavery.  Unless  by  the  means 
of  piety,  not  frothy  and  loquacious,  but  operative, 
unadulterated,  and  sincere,  you  clear  the  horizon 
of  the  mind  from  those  mists  of  superstition  which 
arise  from  the  ignorance  of  true  religion,  you  will 
always  have  those  who  will  bend  your  necks  to  the 
yoke  as  if  you  were  brutes,  who,  notwithstanding  all 
your  triumphs,  will  put  you  up  to  the  highest  bid- 
der, as  if  you  were  mere  booty  made  in  war  ;  and 
will  find  an  exuberant  source  of  wealth  in  your  ig- 
norance and  superstition.  Unless  you  will  subju- 
gate the  propensity  to  avarice,  to  ambition,  and 
sensuality,  and  expel  all  luxury  from  yourselves 
and  from  your  families,  you  will  find  that  you  have 
cherished  a  more  stubborn  and  intractable  despot 
at  home  than  you  ever  encountered  in  the  field  ; 
and  even  your  very  bowels  will  be  continually 
teeming  with  an  intolerable  progeny  of  tyrants. 
Let  those  be  the  first  enemies  whom  you  subdue  ; 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  349 

this  constitutes  the  campaign  of  peace  ;  these  are 
triumphs,  difficult  indeed,  but  bloodless ;  and  far 
more  honorable  than  those  trophies  which  are  pur- 
chased only  by  slaughter  and  by  rapine.  Unless 
you  are  victors  in  this  service,  it  is  in  vain  that  you 
have  been  victorious  over  the  despotic  enemy  in 
the  field.  For  if  you  think  that  it  is  a  more  grand, 
a  more  beneficial,  or  a  more  wise  policy,  to  invent 
subtle  expedients  for  increasing  the  revenue,  to 
multiply  our  naval  and  military  force,  to  rival  in 
craft  the  ambassadors  of  foreign  states,  to  form  skil- 
ful treaties  and  alliances,  than  to  administer  unpol- 
luted justice  to  the  people,  to  redress  the  injured, 
and  to  succor  the  distressed,  and  speedily  to  restore 
to  every  one  his  own,  you  are  involved  in  a  cloud 
of  error  ;  and  too  late  will  you  perceive,  when  the 
illusion  of  those  mighty  benefits  has  vanished,  that 
in  neglecting  these,  which  you  now  think  inferior 
considerations,  you  have  only  been  precipitating 
your  own  ruin  and  despair.  The  fidelity  of  ene- 
mies and  allies  is  frail  and  perishing,  unless  it  be 
cemented  by  the  principles  of  justice  ;  that  wealth 
and  those  honors,  which  most  covet,  readily  change 
masters;  they  forsake  the  idle,  and  repair  where 
virtue,  where  industry,  where  patience  flourish 
most.  Thus  nation  precipitates  the  downfall  of 
nation ;  thus  the  more  sound  part  of  one  people 
subverts  the  more  corrupt ;  thus  you  obtained  the 
ascendant  over  the  royalists.  If  you  plunge  into 
the  same  depravity,  if  you  imitate  their  excesses, 


350      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

and  hanker  after  the  same  vanities,  you  will 
become  royalists  as  well  as  they,  and  liable  to  be 
subdued  by  the  same  enemies,  or  by  others  in  your 
turn ;  who,  placing  their  reliance  on  the  same  re- 
ligious principles,  the  same  patience,  the  same  in- 
tegrity and  discretion  which  made  you  strong, 
will  deservedly  triumph  over  you  who  are  im- 
mersed in  debauchery,  in  the  luxury  and  the  sloth 
of  kings.  Then,  as  if  God  was  weary  of  protect- 
ing you,  you  will  be  seen  to  have  passed  through 
the  fire,  that  you  might  perish  "in  the  smoke  ;  the 
contempt  which  you  will  then  experience  will  be 
great  as  the  admiration  which  you  now  enjoy ;  and, 
what  may  in  future  profit  others,  but  cannot  bene- 
fit yourselves,  you  will  leave  a  salutary  proof  what 
great  things  the  solid  reality  of  virtue  and  of  piety 
might  have  effected,  when  the  mere  counterfeit 
and  varnished  resemblance  could  attempt  such 
mighty  achievements,  and  make  such  considerable 
advances  toward  the  execution.  For,  if  either 
through  your  want  of  knowledge,  your  want  of 
constancy,  or  your  want  of  virtue,  attempts  so  no- 
ble, and  actions  so  glorious,  have  had  an  issue  so 
unfortunate,  it  does  not  therefore  follow,  that  bet- 
ter men  should  be  either  less  daring  in  their  pro- 
jects or  less  sanguine  in  their  hopes.  But  from 
such  an  abyss  of  corruption  into  which  you  so 
readily  fall,  no  one,  not  even  Cromwell  himself, 
nor  a  whole  nation  of  Brutuses,  if  they  were  alive, 
could  deliver  you  if  they  would,  or  would  deliver 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND.  351 

you  if  they  could.  For  who  would  vindicate  your 
right  of  unrestrained  suffrage,  or  of  choosing  what 
representatives  you  liked  best,  merely  that  you 
might  elect  the  creatures  of  your  own  faction, 
whoever  they  might  be,  or  him,  however  small 
might  be  his  worth,  who  would  give  you  the  most 
lavish  feasts,  and  enable  you  to  drink  to  the  great- 
est excess  ?  Thus  not  wisdom  and  authority,  but 
turbulence  and  gluttony,  would  soon  exalt  the  vil- 
est miscreants  from  our  taverns  and  our  brothels, 
from  our  towns  and  villages,  to  the  rank  and  dig- 
nity of  senators.  For,  should  the  management  of 
the  republic  be  intrusted  to  persons  to  whom  no 
one  would  willingly  intrust  the  management  of  his 
private  concerns ;  and  the  treasury  of  the  state  be 
left  to  the  care  of  those  who  had  lavished  their  own 
fortunes  in  an  infamous  prodigality  ?  Should  they 
have  the  charge  of  the  public  purse,  which  they 
would  soon  convert  into  a  private,  by  their  unprin- 
cipled peculations  ?  Are  they  fit  to  be  the  legis- 
lators of  a  whole  people  who  themselves  know  not 
what  law,  what  reason,  what  right  and  wrong, 
what  crooked  and  straight,  what  licit  and  illicit 
means  ?  who  think  that  all  power  consists  in  out- 
rage, all  dignity  in  the  parade  of  insolence  ?  who 
neglect  every  other  consideration  for  the  corrupt 
gratification  of  their  friendships,  or  the  prosecution 
of  their  resentments  ?  who  disperse  their  own  re- 
lations and  creatures  through  the  provinces,  for 
the  sake  of  levying  taxes  and  confiscating  goods  ; 


352      FROM  THE  SECOND  DEFENCE  OF 

men,  for  the  greater  part,  the  most  profligate  and 
vile,  who  buy  up  for  themselves  what  they  pretend 
to  expose  to  sale,  who  thence  collect  an  exorbitant 
mass  of  wealth,  which  they  fraudulently  divert 
from  the  public  service ;  who  thus  spread  their 
pillage  through  the  country,  and  in  a  moment 
emerge  from  penury  and  rags  to  a  state  of  splen- 
dor and  of  wealth  ?  Who  could  endure  such 
thievish  servants,  such  vicegerents  of  their  lords  ? 
Who  could  believe  that  the  masters  and  the  pa- 
trons of  a  banditti  could  be  the  proper  guardians 
of  liberty  ?  or  who  would  suppose  that  he  should 
ever  be  made  one  hair  more  free  by  such  a  set  of 
public  functionaries,  (though  they  might  amount 
to  five  hundred  elected  in  this  manner  from  the 
counties  and  boroughs,)  when  among  them  who 
are  the  very  guardians  of  liberty,  and  to  whose 
custody  it  is  committed,  there  must  be  so  many, 
who  know  not  either  how  to  use  or  to  enjoy  liber- 
ty, who  neither  understand  the  principles,  nor 
merit  the  possession  ?  But,  what  is  worthy  of 
remark,  those  who  are  the  most  unworthy  of  liber- 
ty are  wont  to  behave  most  ungratefully  towards 
their  deliverers.  Among  such  persons,  who  would 
be  willing  either  to  fight  for  liberty,  or  to  encoun- 
ter the  least  peril  in  its  defence  ?  It  is  not  agreea- 
ble to  the  nature  of  things  that  such  persons  ever 
should  be  free.  However  much  they  may  brawl 
about  liberty,  they  are  slaves,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  but  without  perceiving  it ;  and  when  they 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND.  353 

do  perceive  it,  like  unruly  horses  that  are  impatient 
of  the  bit,  they  will  endeavor  to  throw  off  the  yoke, 
not  from  the  love  of  genuine  liberty,  (which  a  good 
man  only  loves  and  knows  how  to  obtain,)  but  from 
the  impulses  of  pride  and  little  passions.  But 
though  they  often  attempt  it  by  arms,  they  will 
make  no  advances  to  the  execution ;  they  may 
change  their  masters,  but  will  never  be  able  to  get 
rid  of  their  servitude.  This  often  happened  to  the 
ancient  Romans,  wasted  by  excess,  and  enervated 
by  luxury :  and  it  has  still  more  so  been  the  fate  of 
the  moderns ;  when,  after  a  long  interval  of  years, 
they  aspired,  under  the  auspices  of  Crescentius,  No- 
mentanus,  and  afterwards  of  Nicholas  Rentius,  who 
had  assumed  the  title  of  Tribune  of  the  People,  to  re- 
store the  splendor  and  re-establish  the  government 
of  ancient  Rome.  For,  instead  of  fretting  with 
vexation,  or  thinking  that  you  can  lay  the  blame 
on  any  one  but  yourselves,  know  that  to  be  free  is 
the  same  thing  as  to  be  pious,  to  be  wise,  to  be  tem- 
perate and  just,  to  be  frugal  and  abstinent,  and 
lastly,  to  be  magnanimous  and  brave  ;  so  to  be  the 
opposite  of  all  these  is  the  same  as  to  be  a  slave  ; 
and  it  usually  happens,  by  the  appointment,  and 
as  it  were  retributive  justice  of  the  Deity,  that 
that  people  which  cannot  govern  themselves,  and 
moderate  their  passions,  but  crouch  under  the  slav- 
ery of  their  lusts,  should  be  delivered  up  to  the 
sway  of  those  whom  they  abhor,  and  made  to  sub- 
mit to  an  involuntary  servitude.  It  is  also  sane- 


354        FROM  THE   SECOND  DEFENCE. 

tioned  by  the  dictates  of  justice  and  by  the  consti- 
tution of  nature,  that  he  who,  from  the  imbecility 
or  derangement  of  his  intellect,  is  incapable  of 
governing  himself,  should,  like  a  minor,  be  com- 
mitted to  the  government  of  another ;  and  least  of 
all  should  he  be  appointed  to  superintend  the  af- 
fairs of  others  or  the  interests  of  the  state.  You, 
therefore,  who  wish  to  remain  free,  either  instant- 
ly be  wise,  or,  as  soon  as  possible,  cease  to  be 
fools ;  if  you  think  slavery  an  intolerable  evil, 
learn  obedience  to  reason  and  the  government  of 
yourselves ;  and  finally  bid  adieu  to  your  dissen- 
sions, your  jealousies,  your  superstitions,  your  out- 
rages, your  rapine,  and  your  lusts.  Unless  you 
.will  spare  no  pains  to  effect  this,  you  must  be 
judged  unfit,  both  by  God  and  mankind,  to  be 
intrusted  with  the  possession  of  liberty  and  the 
administration  of  the  government ;  but  will  rather, 
like  a  nation  in  a  state  of  pupilage,  want  some  ac- 
tive and  courageous  guardian  to  undertake  the 
management  of  your  affairs. 


FROM 

A  TREATISE   OF   CIVIL   POWER   IN 
ECCLESIASTICAL   CAUSES. 


things  there  be,  which  have  been 
ever  found  working  much  mischief  to 
the  Church  of  God  and  the  advance- 
^t  ment  of  truth  :  force  on  one  side  re- 
straining, and  hire  on  the  other  side  corrupting, 
the  teachers  thereof.  Few  ages  have  been  since 
the  ascension  of  our  Saviour,  wherein  the  one  of 
these  two,  or  both  together,  have  not  prevailed. 
It  can  be  at  no  time,  therefore,  unseasonable  to 
speak  of  these  things  ;  since  by  them  the  Church 
is  either  in  continual  detriment  and  oppression,  or 
in  continual  danger  ..... 

It  will  require  no  great  labor  of  exposition  to 
unfold  what  is  here  meant  by  matters  of  religion  ; 
being  as  soon  apprehended  as  defined,  such  things 
as  belong  chiefly  to  the  knowledge  and  service  of 
God  ;  and  are  either  above  the  reach  and  light  of 
nature  without  revelation  from  above,  and  there- 
fore liable  to  be  variously  understood  by  human 
reason,  or  such  things  as  are  enjoined  or  forbidden 


356        A  TREATISE  OF  CIVIL  POWER 

by  divine  precept,  which  else  by  the  light  of  reason 
would  seem  indifferent  to  be  done  or  not  done; 
and  so  likewise  must  needs  appear  to  every  man 
as  the  precept  is  understood.  Whence  I  here  mean 
by  conscience  or  religion  that  full  persuasion, 
whereby  we  are  assured,  that  our  belief  and  prac- 
tice, as  far  as  we  are  able  to  apprehend  and  prob- 
ably make  appear,  is  according  to  the  will  of  God 
and  his  Holy  Spirit  within  us,  which  we  ought  to 
follow  much  rather  than  any  law  of  man,  as  not 
only  his  word  everywhere  bids  us,  but  the  very 

dictate  of  reason  tells  us 

It  cannot  be  denied,  being  the  main  foundation 
of  our  Protestant  religion,  that  we  of  these  ages, 
having  no  other  divine  rule  or  authority  from  with- 
out us,  warrantable  to  one  another  as  a  common 
ground,  but  the  holy  Scripture,  and  no  other  within 
us  but  the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  so  in- 
terpreting that  Scripture  as  warrantable  only  to 
ourselves,  and  to  such  whose  consciences  we  can  so 
persuade,  can  have  no  other  ground  in  matters  of 
religion  but  only  from  the  Scriptures.  And  these 
being  not  possible  to  be  understood  without  this 
divine  illumination,  which  no  man  can  know  at  all 
times  to  be  in  himself,  much  less  to  be  at  any  time 
for  certain  in  any  other,  it  follows  clearly,  that  no 
man  or  body  of  men  in  these  times  can  be  the 
infallible  judges  or  determiners  in  matters  of  re- 
ligion to  any  other  men's  consciences  but  their 
own. 


IN  ECCLESIASTICAL   CAUSES.          357 

Seeing,  therefore,  that  no  man,  no  synod,  no 
session  of  men,  though  called  the  Church,  can 
judge  definitely  the  sense  of  Scripture  to  another 
man's  conscience,  which  is  well  known  to  be  a 
general  maxim  of  the  Protestant  religion ;  it  fol- 
lows plainly,  that  he  who  holds  in  religion  that 
belief,  or  those  opinions,  which  to  his  conscience 
and  utmost  understanding  appear  with  most  evi- 
dence or  probability  in  the  Scripture,  though  to 
others  he  seem  erroneous,  can  no  more  be  justly 
censured  for  a  heretic  than  his  censurers ;  who  do 
but  the  same  thing  themselves,  while  they  censure 
him  for  so  doing.  For  ask  them,  or  any  Prot- 
estant, which  hath  most  authority,  the  Church  or 
the  Scripture  ?  They  will  answer,  doubtless,  that 
the  Scripture :  and  what  hath  most  authority,  that 
no  doubt  but  they  will  confess  is  to  be  followed. 
He  then,  who  to  his  best  apprehension  follows  the 
Scripture,  though  against  any  point  of  doctrine  by 
the  whole  Church  received,  is  not  the  heretic ;  but 
he  who  follows  the  Church  against  his  conscience 
and  persuasion  grounded  on  the  Scripture.  To 
make  this  yet  more  undeniable,  I  shall  only  borrow 
a  plain  simile,  the  same  which  our  own  writers, 
when  they  would  demonstrate  plainest,  that  we 
rightly  prefer  the  Scripture  before  the  Church,  use 
frequently  against  the  Papist  in  this  manner.  As 
the  Samaritans  believed  Christ,  first  for  the 
woman's  word,  but  next  and  much  rather  for  his 
own,  so  we  the  Scripture:  first  on  the  Church's 


358        A    TREATISE   OF  CIVIL  POWER 

word,  but  afterwards  and  much  more  for  its  own, 
as  the  Word  of  God;  yea,  the  Church  itself  we 
believe  then  for  the  Scripture.  The  inference  of 
itself  follows:  If  by  the  Protestant  doctrine  we 
believe  the  Scripture,  not  for  the  Church's  saying, 
but  for  its  own,  as  the  Word  of  God,  then  ought 
we  to  believe  what  in  our  conscience  we  apprehend 
the  Scripture  to  say,  though  the  visible  Church, 
with  all  her  doctors,  gainsay :  and  being  taught  to 
believe  them  only  for  the  Scripture,  they  who  so 
do  are  not  heretics,  but  the  best  Protestants :  and 
by  their  opinions,  whatever  they  be,  can  hurt  no 
Protestant,  whose  rule  is  not  to  receive  them  but 
from  the  Scripture :  which  to  interpret  convincingly 
to  his  own  conscience,  none  is  able  but  himself, 
guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  not  so  guided, 
none  than  he  to  himself  can  be  a  worse  deceiver. 
To  Protestants,  therefore,  whose  common  rule  and 
touchstone  is  the  Scripture,  nothing  can  with  more 
conscience,  more  equity,  nothing  more  Protestantly 
can  be  permitted,  than  a  free  and  lawful  debate  at 
all  times  by  writing,  conference,  or  disputation  of 
what  opinion  soever,  disputable  by  Scripture  :  con- 
cluding that  no  man  in  religion  is  properly  a  heretic 
at  this  day,  but  he  who  maintains  traditions  or 
opinions  not  probable  by  Scripture,  who,  for  aught 
I  know,  is  the  Papist  only ;  he  the  only  heretic, 
who  counts  all  heretics  but  himself.  .... 

How  many  persecutions,  then,  imprisonments, 
banishments,   penalties,   and   stripes;   how  much 


IN  ECCLESIASTICAL   CAUSES.         359 

bloodshed  have  the  forcers  of  conscience  to  answer 
for,  and  Protestants  rather  than  Papists !  For  the 
Papist,  judging  by  his  principles,  punishes  them 
who  believe  not  as  the  Church  believes,  though 
against  the  Scripture  ;  but  the  Protestant,  teaching 
every  one  to  believe  the  Scripture,  though  against 
the  Church,  counts  heretical,  and  persecutes  against 
his  own  principles,  them  who  in  any  particular  so 
believe  as  he  in  general  teaches  them ;  them  who 
most  honor  and  believe  divine  Scripture,  but  not 
against  it  any  human  interpretation,  though  univer- 
sal ;  them  who  interpret  Scripture  only  to  themselves, 
which,  by  his  own  position,  none  but  they  to  them- 
selves can  interpret :  them  who  use  the  Scripture 
no  otherwise  by  his  own  doctrine  to  their  edifica- 
tion, than  he  himself  uses  it  to  their  punishing ; 
and  so  whom  his  doctrine  acknowledges  a  true 
believer,  his  discipline  persecutes  as  a  heretic. 
The  Papist  exacts  our  belief  as  to  the  Church  due 
above  Scripture  ;  and  by  the  Church,  which  is  the 
whole  people  of  God,  understands  the  pope,  the 
general  councils,  prelatical  only,  and  the  surnamed 
fathers :  but  the  forcing  Protestant,  though  he  deny 
such  belief  to  any  Church  whatsoever,  yet  takes  it 
to  himself  and  his  teachers,  of  far  less  authority 
than  to  be  called  the  Church,  and  above  Scripture 
believed :  which  renders  his  practice  both  contrary 
to  his  belief,  and  far  worse  than  that  belief  which 
he  condemns  in  the  Papist.  By  all  which,  well 
considered,  the  more  he  professes  to  be  a  true 


360       A    TREATISE   OF  CIVIL  POWER 

Protestant,  the  more  he  hath  to  answer  for  his 
persecuting  than  a  Papist.  No  Protestant,  there- 
fore, of  what  sect  soever,  following  Scripture  only, 
which  is  the  common  sect  wherein  they  all  agree, 
and  the  granted  rule  of  every  man's  conscience  to 
himself,  ought  by  the  common  doctrine  of  Protest- 
ants to  be  forced  or  molested  for  religion 

Seducement  is  to  be  hindered  by  fit  and  proper 
means  ordained  in  Church  discipline,  by  instant 
and  powerful  demonstration  to  the  contrary;  by 
opposing  truth  to  error,  no  unequal  match ;  truth 
the  strong,  to  error  the  weak,  though  sly  and  shift- 
ing. Force  is  no  honest  confutation,  but  uneftect- 
ual,  and  for  the  most  part  unsuccessful,  ofttimes 
fatal  to  them  who  use  it :  sound  doctrine,  diligently 
and  duly  taught,  is  of  herself  both  sufficient,  and 
of  herself  (if  some  secret  judgment  of  God  hinder 
not)  always  prevalent  against  seducers 

Ill  was  our  condition  changed  from  legal  to  evan- 
gelical, and  small  advantage  gotten  by  the  Gospel, 
if,  for  the  spirit  of  adoption  to  freedom  promised  us, 
we  receive  again  the  spirit  of  bondage  to  fear;  if 
our  fear,  which  was  then  servile  towards  God  only, 
must  be  now  servile  in  religion  towards  men: 
strange  also  and  preposterous  fear,  if,  when  and 
wherein  it  hath  attained  by  the  redemption  of  our 
Saviour  to  be  filial  only  towards  God,  it  must  be 
now  servile  towards  the  magistrate :  who,  by  sub- 
jecting us  to  his  punishment  in  these  things,  brings 
back  into  religion  that  law  of  terror  and  satisfaction 


IN  ECCLESIASTICAL   CAUSES.         361 

belonging  now  only  to  civil  crimes;  and  thereby 
in  effect  abolishes  the  Gospel,  by  establishing  again 
the  law  to  a  far  worse  yoke  of  servitude  upon  us 
than  before.  It  will  therefore  not  misbecome  the 
meanest  Christian  to  put  in  mind  Christian  magis- 
trates, and  so  much  the  more  freely  by  how  much 
the  more  they  desire  to  be  thought  Christian,  (for 
they  will  be  thereby,  as  they  ought  to  be  in  these 
things,  the  more  our  brethren  and  the  less  our 
lords,)  that  they  meddle  not  rashly  with  Christian 
liberty,  the  birthright  and  outward  testimony  of 
our  adoption ;  lest  while  they  little  think  it,  nay, 
think  they  do  God  service,  they  themselves,  like 
the  sons  of  that  bondwoman,  be  found  persecuting 
them  who  are  freeborn  of  the  Spirit,  and,  by  a 
sacrilege  of  not  the  least  aggravation,  bereaving 
them  of  that  sacred  liberty,  which  our  Saviour  with 
his  own  blood  purchased  for  them. 


16 


FROM 

CONSIDERATIONS 

TOUCHING  THE  LIKELIEST  MEANS  TO  REMOVE 
HIRELINGS  OUT  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

HE  former  treatise,  which  leads  in  this, 
began  with  two  things  ever  found 
working  much  mischief  to  religion, 
force  on  the  one  side  restraining,  and 
hire  on  the  other  side  corrupting,  the  teachers 
thereof.  The  latter  of  these  is  by  much  the  more 
dangerous ;  for  under  force,  though  no  thanks  to 
the  forcers,  true  religion  ofttimes  best  thrives  and 
flourishes ;  but  the  corruption  of  teachers,  most  com- 
monly the  effect  of  hire,  is  the  very  bane  of  truth 
in  them  who  are  so  corrupted.  Of  force  not  to  be 
used  in  matters  of  religion,  I  have  already  spoken ; 
and  so  stated  matters  of  conscience  and  religion 
in  faith  and  divine  worship,  and  so  severed  them 
from  blasphemy  and  heresy,  the  one  being  such 
properly  as  is  despiteful,  the  other  such  as  stands 
not  to  the  rule  of  Scripture,  and  so  both  of  them 
not  matters  of  religion,  but  rather  against  it,  that 
to  them  who  will  yet  use  force,  this  only  choice  can 


MEANS  TO  REMOVE  HIRELINGS.       363 

be  left,  whether  they  will  force  them  to  believe,  to 
whom  it  is  not  given  from  above,  being  not  forced 
thereto  by  any  principle  of  the  Gospel,  which  is 
now  the  only  dispensation  of  God  to  all  men :  or 
whether,  being  Protestants,  they  will  punish  in 
those  things  wherein  the  Protestant  religion  denies 
them  to  be  judges,  either  in  themselves  infallible, 
or  to  the  consciences  of  other  men  ;  or  whether, 
lastly,  they  think  fit  to  punish  error,  supposing 
they  can  be  infallible  that  it  is  so,  being  not  wilful 
but  conscientious,  and,  according  to  the  best  light 
of  him  who  errs,  grounded  on  Scripture :  which 
kind  of  error  all  men  religious,  or  but  only  reason- 
able, have  thought  worthier  of  pardon,  and  the 
growth  thereof  to  be  prevented  by  spiritual  means 
and  Church  discipline,  not  by  civil  laws  and  out- 
ward force,  since  it  is  God  only  who  gives  as  well 
to  believe  aright,  as  to  believe  at  all ;  and  by 
those  means,  which  he  ordained  sufficiently  in  his 
Church  to  the  foil  execution  of  his  divine  purpose 
in  the  Gospel.  It  remains  now  to  speak  of  hire, 
the  other  evil  so  mischievous  in  religion ;  whereof 
I  promised  then  to  speak  further,  when  I  should 
find  God  disposing  me,  and  opportunity  inviting. 
Opportunity  I  find  now  inviting ;  and  apprehend 
therein  the  concurrence  of  God  disposing;  since 
the  maintenance  of  Church  ministers,  a  thing  not 
properly  belonging  to  the  magistrate,  and  yet  with 
such  importunity  called  for,  and  expected  from 
him,  is  at  present  under  public  debate.  Wherein, 


364:    THE  LIKELIEST  MEANS  TO  REMOVE 

lest  anything  may  happen  to  be  determined  and 
established  prejudicial  to  the  right  and  freedom 
of  the  Church,  or  advantageous  to  such  as  may  be 
found  hirelings  therein,  it  will  be  now  most  sea- 
sonable, and  in  these  matters,  wherein  every 
Christian  hath  his  free  suffrage,  no  way  misbecom- 
ing Christian  meekness  to  offer  freely,  without 
disparagement  to  the  wisest,  such  advice  as  God 
shall  incline  him  and  enable  him  to  propound: 
since  heretofore  in  commonwealths  of  most  fame 
for  government,  civil  laws  were  not  established 
till  they  had  been  first  for  certain  days  published 
to  the  view  of  all  men,  that  whoso  pleased  might 
speak  freely  his  opinion  thereof,  and  give  in  his 
exceptions,  ere  the  law  could  pass  to  a  full  estab- 
lishment. And  where  ought  this  equity  to  have 
more  place,  than  in  the  liberty  which  is  insepara- 
ble from  Christian  religion  ?  This,  I  am  not  ig- 
norant, will  be  a  work  unpleasing  to  some :  but 
what  truth  is  not  hateiul  to  some  or  other,  as  this, 
in  likelihood,  will  be  to  none  but  hirelings.  And 
if  there  be  among  them  who  hold  it  their  duty  to 
speak  impartial  truth,  as  the  work  of  their  minis- 
try, though  not  performed  without  money,  let  them 
not  envy  others  who  think  the  same  no  less  their 
duty  by  the  general  office  of  Christianity,  to  speak 
truth,  as  in  all  reason  may  be  thought,  more  im- 
partially and  unsuspectedly  without  money. 

Hire  of  itself  is  neither  a  thing  unlawful,  nor  a 
word  of  any  evil  note,  signifying  no  more  than  a 


HIRELINGS  OUT  OF  THE   CHURCH.    365 

due  recompense  or  reward ;  as  when  our  Saviour 
saith,  "  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire."  That 
which  makes  it  so  dangerous  in  the  Church,  and 
properly  makes  the  hireling,  a  word  always  of  evil 
signification,  is  either  the  excess  thereof,  or  the  un- 
due manner  of  giving  and  taking  it.  What  harm 
the  excess  thereof  brought  to  the  Church,  perhaps 
was  not  found  by  experience  till  the  days  of  Con- 
stantine  ;  who  out  of  his  zeal  thinking  he  could 
be  never  too  liberally  a  nursing  father  of  the 
Church,  might  be  not  unfitly  said  to  have  either 
overlaid  it  or  choked  it  in  the  nursing.  Which 
was  foretold,  as  is  recorded  in  ecclesiastical  tradi- 
tions, by  a  voice  heard  from  heaven,  on  the  very 
day  that  those  great  donations  and  Church  reve- 
nues were  given,  crying  aloud,  "  This  day  is  poi- 
son poured  into  the  Church."  Which  the  event 
soon  after  verified,  as  appears  by  another  no  less 
ancient  observation,  "  That  religion  brought  forth 
wealth,  and  the  daughter  devoured  the  mother." 
But  long  ere  wealth  came  into  the  Church,  so  soon 
as  any  gain  appeared  in  religion,  hirelings  were  ap- 
parent ;  drawn  in  long  before  by  the  very  scent 
thereof.  Judas  therefore,  the  first  hireling,  for 
want  of  present  hire  answerable  to  his  coveting, 
from  the  small  number  or  the  meanness  of  such  as 
then  were  the  religious,  sold  the  religion  itself  with 
the  founder  thereof,  his  master.  Simon  Magus  the 
next,  in  hope  only  that  preaching  and  the  gifts  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  would  prove  gainful,  offered  before- 


366     THE  LIKELIEST  MEANS  TO  REMOVE 

hand  a  sum  of  money  to  obtain  them.  Not  long 
after,  as  the  apostle  foretold,  hirelings  like  wolves 

came  in  by  herds Neither  came  they  in  of 

themselves  only,  but  invited  ofttimes  by  a  corrupt 
audience  :  2  Tim.  iv.  3 

Thus  we  see,  that  not  only  the  excess  of  hire  in 
wealthiest  times,  but  also  the  undue  and  vicious 
taking  or  giving  it,  though  but  small  or  mean,  as 
in  the  primitive  times,  gave  to  hirelings  occasion, 
though  not  intended,  yet  sufficient  to  creep  at  first 
into  the  Church.  Which  argues  also  the  difficulty, 
or  rather  the  impossibility,  to  remove  them  quite, 
unless  every  minister  were,  as  St.  Paul,  contented 
to  preach  gratis  ;  but  few  such  are  to  be  found. 
As  therefore  we  cannot  justly  take  away  all  hire 
in  the  Church,  because  we  cannot  otherwise  quite 
remove  all  hirelings,  so  are  we  not,  for  the  impos- 
sibility of  removing  them  all,  to  use  therefore  no 
endeavor  that  fewest  may  come  in ;  but  rather,  in 
regard  the  evil,  do  what  we  can,  will  always  be  in- 
cumbent and  unavoidable,  to  use  our  utmost  dili- 
gence how  it  may  be  least  dangerous * 

What  recompense  ought  to  be  given  to  Church 
ministers,  God  hath  answerably  ordained  according 
to  that  difference  which  he  hath  manifestly  put  be- 
tween those  his  two  great  dispensations,  the  Law 
and  the  Gospel.  Under  the  Law  he  gave  them 
tithes ;  under  the  Gospel,  having  left  all  things  in 
his  Church  to  charity  and  Christian  freedom,  he 
hath  given  them  only  what  is  justly  given  them. 


HIRELINGS  OUT  OF  THE   CHURCH.    367 

That,  as  well  under  the  Gospel  as  under  the  Law, 
say  our  English  divines,  and  they  only  of  all  Prot- 
estants, is  tithes :  and  they  say  true,  if  any  man 
be  so  minded  to  give  them  of  his  own  the  tenth 
or  twentieth  ;  but  that  the  law  therefore  of  tithes 
is  in  force  under  the  Gospel,  all  other  Protestant 
divines,  though  equally  concerned,  yet  constantly 
deny.  For  although  hire  to  the  laborer  be  of 
moral  and  perpetual  right,  yet  that  special  kind  of 
hire,  the  tenth,  can  be  of  no  right  or  necessity,  but 

to  that  special  labor  for  which  God  ordained  it 

What  if  they  who  are  to  be  instructed  be  not 
able  to  maintain  a  minister,  as  in  many  villages  ? 
I  answer  that  the  Scripture  shows  in  many  places 
what  ought  to  be  done  herein.  First,  I  offer  it  to 
the  reason  of  any  man,  whether  he  think  the 
knowledge  of  Christian  religion  harder  than  any 
other  art  or  science  to  -attain.  I  suppose  he  will 
grant  that  it  is  far  easier,  both  of  itself,  and  in  re- 
gard of  God's  assisting  Spirit,  not  particularly 
promised  us  to  the  attainment  of  any  other  knowl- 
edge, but  of  this  only :  since  it  was  preached  as 
well  to  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem  by  angels,  as 
to  the  Eastern  wise  men  by  that  star :  and  our 
Saviour  declares  himself  anointed  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  the  poor,  Luke  iv.  18 ;  then  surely  to 
their  capacity.  They  who  after  him  first  taught 
it,  were  otherwise  unlearned  men :  they  who  be- 
fore Hus  and  Luther  first  reformed  it,  were  for 
the  meanness  of  their  condition  called,  "  the  poor 


368    THE  LIKELIEST  MEANS  TO  REMOVE 

men  of  Lyons  "  :  and  in  Flanders  at  this  day,  "  le 
Gueus,"  which  is  to  say,  beggars.  Therefore  are 
the  Scriptures  translated  into  every  vulgar  tongue, 
as  being  held  in  main  matters  of  belief  and  salva- 
tion plain  and  easy  to  the  poorest :  and  such  no 
less  than  their  teachers  have  the  spirit  to  guide 
them  in  all  truth,  John  xiv.  26,  and  xvi.  13. 
Hence  we  may  conclude,  if  men  be  not  all  their 
lifetime  under  a  teacher  to  learn  logic,  natural 
philosophy,  ethics,  or  mathematics,  which  are 
more  difficult,  that  certainly  it  is  not  necessary  to 
the  attainment  of  Christian  knowledge,  that  men 
should  sit  all  their  life  long  at  the  feet  of  a  pulpited 
divine ;  while  he,  indeed  a  lollard  over  his  elbow- 
cushion,  in  almost  the  seventh  part  of  forty  or  fifty 
years  teaches  them  scarce  half  the  principles  of  re- 
ligion ;  and  his  sheep  ofttimes  sit  the  while  to  as  lit- 
tle purpose  of  benefiting,  as  the  sheep  in  their  pews 
at  Smithfield ;  and  for  the  most  part  by  some  simony 
or  other  bought  and  sold  like  them:  or,  if  this 
comparison  be  too  low,  like  those  women,  1  Tim. 
iii.  7,  "  Ever  learning  and  never  attaining  "  ;  yet 
not  so  much  through  their  own  fault,  as  through 
the  unskilful  and  immethodical  teaching  of  their 
pastor,  teaching  here  and  there  at  random  out  of 
this  or  that  text,  as  his  ease  or  fancy,  and  ofttimes 
as  his  stealth  guides  him.  Seeing  then  that  Chris- 
tian religion  may  be  so  easily  attained,  and  by 
meanest  capacities,  it  cannot  be  much  difficult  to 
find  ways,  both  how  the  poor,  yea,  all  men,  may 


HIRELINGS  OUT  OF  THE   CHURCH.    369 

be  soon  taught  what  is  to  be  known  of  Christiani- 
ty, and  they  who  teach  them,  recompensed.  First, 
if  ministers  of  their  own  accord,  who  pretend  that 
they  are  called  and  sent  to  preach  the  Gospel, 
those  especially  who  have  no  particular  flock, 
would  imitate  our  Saviour  and  his  disciples,  who 
went  preaching  through  the  villages,  not  only 
through  the  cities,  and  there  preached  to  the  poor 
as  well  as  to  the  rich,  looking  for  no  recompense 
but  in  heaven. 

But  they  will  soon  reply,  We  ourselves  have 
not  wherewithal ;  who  shall  bear  the  charges 
of  our  journey  ?  To  whom  it  may  as  soon  be  an- 
swered, that  in  likelihood  they  are  not  poorer  than 
they  who  did  thus  ;  and  if  they  have  not  the  same 
faith  which  those  disciples  had  to  trust  in  God  and 
the  promise  of  Christ  for  their  maintenance  as 
they  did,  and  yet  intrude  into  the  ministry  without 
any  livelihood  of  their  own,  they  cast  themselves 
into  miserable  hazard  or  temptation,  and  ofttimes 
into  a  more  miserable  necessity,  either  to  starve, 
or  to  please  their  paymasters  rather  than  God ;  and 
give  men  just  cause  to  suspect,  that  they  came, 
neither  called  nor  sent  from  above  to  preach  the 
word,  but  from  below,  by  the  instinct  of  their  own 
hunger,  to  feed  upon  the  Church.  Yet  grant  it 
needful  to  allow  them  both  the  charges  of  their 
journey  and  the  hire  of  their  labor,  it  will  belong 
next  to  the  charity  of  richer  congregations,  where 

16*  x 


370    THE  LIKELIEST  MEANS  TO  REMOVE 

most  commonly  they  abound  with  teachers,  to 
send  some  of  their  number  to  the  villages  round, 
as  the  Apostles  from  Jerusalem  sent  Peter  and  John 
to  the  city  and  villages  of  Samaria,  Acts  viii.  14, 
25  ;  or  as  the  church  at  Jerusalem  sent  Barnabas 
to  Antioch,  chap.  xi.  22,  and  other  churches 
joining  sent  Luke  to  travel  with  Paul,  2  Cor.  viii. 
19  :  though  whether  they  had  their  charges  borne 
by  the  church  or  no,  it  be  not  recorded.  If  it  be 
objected,  that  this  itinerary  preaching  will  not 
serve  to  plant  the  Gospel  in  those  places,  unless 
they  who  are  sent  abide  there  some  competent 
time  ;  I  answer,  that  if  they  stay  there  a  year  or 
two,  which  was  the  longest  time  usually  stayed  by 
the  apostles  in  one  place,  it  may  suffice  to  teach 
them  who  will  attend  and  learn  all  the  points  of 
religion  necessary  to  salvation ;  then  sorting  them 
into  several  congregations  of  a  moderate  number, 
-out  of  the  ablest  and  zealousest  among  them  to 
create  elders,  who,  exercising  and  requiring  from 
themselves  what  they  have  learned,  (for  no  learn- 
ing is  retained  without  constant  exercise  and  me- 
thodical repetition,)  may  teach  and  govern  the 
rest :  a.nd  so  exhorted  to  continue  faithful  and 
steadfast,  they  may  securely  be  committed  to  the 
providence  of  God  and  the  guidance  of  his  Holy 
Spirit,  till  God  may  offer  some  opportunity  to  visit 
them  again,  and  to  confirm  them  :  which  when 
they  have  done,  they  have  done  as  much  as  the 
Apostles  were  wont  to  do  in  propagating  the  Gos- 
pel  


HIRELINGS   OUT  OF  THE   CHURCH.    371 

To  these  I  might  add  other  helps,  which  we 
enjoy  now,  to  make  more  easy  the  attainment  of 
Christian  religion  by  the  meanest :  the  entire  Scrip- 
ture translated  into  English  with  plenty  of  notes ; 
and  •  somewhere  or  other,  I  trust,  may  be  found 
some  wholesome  body  of  divinity,  as  they  call  it, 
without  school-terms  and  metaphysical  notions, 
which  have  obscured  rather  than  explained  our 
religion,  and  made  it  seem  difficult  without  cause. 
Thus  taught  once  for  all,  and  thus  now  and  then 
visited  and  confirmed,  in  the  most  destitute  and 
poorest  places  of  the  land,  under  the  government 
of  their  own  elders  performing  all  ministerial  offices 
among  them,  they  may  be  trusted  to  meet  and 
edify  one  another,  whether  in  church  or  chapel,  or 
to  save  them  the  trudging  of  many  miles  thither, 
nearer  home,  though  in  a  house  or  barn.  For 
notwithstanding  the  gaudy  superstition  of  some  de- 
voted still  ignorantly  to  temples,  we  may  be  well 
assured,  that  he  who  disdained  not  to  be  laid  in  a 
manger,  disdains  not  to  be  preached  in  a  barn ; 
and  that  by  such  meetings  as  these,  being  indeed 
most  apostolical  and  primitive,  they  will  in  a  short 
time  advance  more  in  Christian  knowledge  and  ref- 
ormation of  life,  than  by  the  many  years'  preaching 
of  such  an  incumbent,  I  may  say,  such  an  incubus 
ofttimes,  as  will  be  meanly  hired  to  abide  long  in 
those  places.  They  have  this  left  perhaps  to  ob- 
ject further ;  that  to  send  thus,  and  to  maintain, 
though  but  for  a  year  or  two,  ministers  and  teach- 


372     THE  LIKELIEST  MEANS  TO  REMOVE 

ers  in  several  places,  would  prove  chargeable  to 
the  churches,  though  in  towns  and  cities  round- 
about. To  whom  again  I  answer,  that  it  was  not 
thought  so  by  them  who  first  thus  propagated  the 
Gospel,  though  but  few  in  number  to  us,  and 
much  less  able  to  sustain  the  expense.  Yet  this 
expense  would  be  much  less  than  to  hire  incum- 
bents, or  rather  incumbrances,  for  lifetime ;  and  a 
great  means  (which  is  the  subject  of  this  discourse) 

to  diminish  hirelings 

But  that  the  magistrate  either  out  of  that  Church 
revenue  which  remains  yet  in  his  hand,  or  estab- 
lishing any  other  maintenance  instead  of  tithe, 
should  take  into  his  own  power  the  stipendiary 
maintenance  of  church-ministers,  or  compel  it  by 
law,  can  stand  neither  with  the  people's  right,  nor 
with  Christian  liberty,  but  would  suspend  the 
Church  wholly  upon  the  state,  and  turn  her  minis- 
ters into  state  pensioners.  And  for  the  magistrate 
in  person  of  a  nursing  father  to  make  the  Church 
his  mere  ward,  as  always  in  minority,  the  Church 
to  whom  he  ought  as  a  magistrate,  Isa.  xlix.  23, 
"  to  bow  down  with  his  face  toward  the  earth,  and 
lick  up  the  dust  of  her  feet";  her  to  subject  to 
his  political  drifts  or  conceived  opinions,  by  master- 
ing her  revenue ;  and  so  by  his  examinant  com- 
mittees to  circumscribe  her  free  election  of  minis- 
ters, is  neither  just  nor  pious ;  no  honor  done  to 
the  Church,  but  a  plain  dishonor:  and  upon  her 
whose  only  head  is  in  heaven,  yea,  upon  him,  who 


HIRELINGS  OUT  OF  THE   CHURCH.    373 

is  only  head,  sets  another  in  effect,  and,  which  is 
most  monstrous,  a  human  on  a  heavenly,  a  carnal 
on  a  spiritual,  a  political  head  on  an  ecclesiastical 
body ;  which,  at  length,  by  such  heterogeneal,  such 
incestuous  conjunction,  transforms  her  ofttimes  into 
a  beast  of  many  heads  and  many  horns.  For  if  the 
Church  be  of  all  societies  the  holiest  on  earth,  and 
so  to  be  reverenced  by  the  magistrate  ;  not  to 
trust  her  with  her  own  belief  and  integrity,  and 
therefore  not  with  the  keeping,  at  least  with  the 
disposing,  of  what  revenue  should  be  found  justly 
and  lawfully  her  own,  is  to  count  the  Church  not 
a  holy  congregation,  but  a  pack  of  giddy  or  dis- 
honest persons,  to  be  ruled  by  civil  power  in  sacred 

affairs 

Heretofore  in  the  first  evangelic  times,  (and  it 
were  happy  for  Christendom  if  it  were  so  again,) 
ministers  of  the  Gospel  were  by  nothing  else  dis- 
tinguished from  other  Christians,  but  by  their 
spiritual  knowledge  and  sanctity  of  life,  for  which 
the  Church  elected  them  to  be  her  teachers  and 
overseers,  though  not  thereby  to  separate  them 
from  whatever  calling  she  then  found  them  follow- 
ing besides ;  as  the  example  of  St.  Paul  declares, 
and  the  first  times  of  Christianity.  When  once 
they  affected  to  be  called  a  clergy,  and  became,  as 
it  were,  a  peculiar  tribe  of  Levites,  a  party,  a  dis- 
tinct order  in  the  commonwealth,  bred  up  for  divines 
in  babbling  schools,  and  fed  at  the  public  cost,  good 
for  nothing  else  but  what  was  good  for  nothing, 


374    THE  LIKELIEST  MEANS  TO  REMOVE 

they  soon  grew  idle  :  that  idleness,  with  fulness  of 
bread,  begat  pride  and  perpetual  contention  with 
their  feeders,  the  despised  laity,  through  all  ages 
ever  since ;  to  the  perverting  of  religion,  and  the 
disturbance  of  all  Christendom.  And  we  may 
confidently  conclude,  it  never  will  be  otherwise 
while  they  are  thus  upheld  undepending  on  the 
Church,  on  which  alone  they  anciently  depended, 
and  are  by  the  magistrate  publicly  maintained,  a 
numerous  faction  of  indigent  persons,  crept  for  the 
most  part  out  of  extreme  want  and  bad  nurture, 
claiming  by  divine  right  and  freehold  the  tenth  of 
our  estates,  to  monopolize  the  ministry  as  their 
peculiar,  which  is  free  and  open  to  all  able  Chris- 
tians, elected  by  any  church.  Under  this  pre- 
tence, exempt  from  all  other  employment,  and 
enriching  themselves  on  the  public,  they  last  of  all 
prove  common  incendiaries,  and  exalt  their  horns 
against  the  magistrate  himself  that  maintains  them, 
as  the  priest  of  Rome  did  soon  after  against  his 
benefactor  the  emperor,  and  the  presbyters  of  late 
in  Scotland.  Of  which  hireling  crew,  together 
with  all  the  mischiefs,  dissensions,  troubles,  wars 
merely  of  their  kindling,  Christendom  might  soon 
rid  herself  and  be  happy,  if  Christians  would  but 
know  their  own  dignity,  their  liberty,  their  adop- 
tion, and,  let  it  not  be  wondered  if  I  say,  their 
spiritual  priesthood,  whereby  they  have  all  equally 
access  to  any  ministerial  function,  whenever  called 
by  their  own  abilities,  and  the  Church,  though 


HIRELINGS  OUT  OF  THE   CHURCH.    37 5 

they  never  came  near  commencement  or  univer- 
sity. But  while  Protestants,  to  avoid  the  due 
labor  of  understanding  their  own  religion,  are  con- 
tent to  lodge  it  in  the  breast,  or  rather  in  the  books, 
of  a  clergyman,  and  to  take  it  thence  by  scraps  and 
mammocks,  as  he  dispenses  it  in  his  Sunday's  dole, 
they  will  be  always  learning  and  never  knowing ; 
always  infants;  always  either  his  vassals,  as  lay 
Papists  are  to  their  priests ;  or  at  odds  with  him, 
as  reformed  principles  give  them  some  light  to  be 
not  wholly  conformable ;  whence  infinite  disturb- 
ances in  the  state,  as  they  do,  must  needs  follow. 
Thus  much  I  had  to  say;  and,  I  suppose,  what 
may  be  enough  to  them  who  are  not  avariciously 
bent  otherwise,  touching  the  likeliest  means  to  re- 
move hirelings  out  of  the  Church ;  than  which 
nothing  can  more  conduce  to  truth,  to  peace  and 
all  happiness,  both  in  church  and  state.  If  I 
be  not  heard  nor  believed,  the  event  will  have 
borne  me  witness  to  have  spoken  truth ;  and  I  in 
the  mean  while  have  borne  my  witness,  not  out  of 
season,  to  the  Church  and  to  my  country. 


FROM 

THE  READY  AND  EASY  WAY  TO  ESTABLISH 
A  FREE  COMMONWEALTH. 


our  liberty  and  religion  thus  pros- 
perously fought  for,  gained,  and  many 
years  possessed,  except  in  those  un- 
happy interruptions  which  God  hath 
removed  ;  now  that  nothing  remains,  but  in  all 
reason  the  certain  hopes  of  a  speedy  and  immediate 
settlement  forever  in  a  firm  and  free  common- 
wealth, for  this  extolled  and  magnified  nation,  re- 
gardless both  of  honor  won,  or  deliverances  vouch- 
safed from  Heaven,  to  fall  back,  or  rather  to  creep 
back  so  poorly,  as  it  seems  the  multitude  would,  to 
their  once  abjured  and  detested  thraldom  of  king- 
ship, to  be  ourselves  the  slanderers  of  our  own  just 
and  religious  deeds,  though  done  by  some  to  covet- 
ous and  ambitious  ends,  yet  not  therefore  to  be 
stained  with  their  infamy,  or  they  to  asperse  the 
integrity  of  others;  and  yet  these,  now  by  re- 
volting from  the  conscience  of  deeds  well  done, 
both  in  church  and  state,  to  throw  away  and  for- 
sake, or  rather  to  betray  a  just  and  noble  cause  for 


A  FREE   COMMONWEALTH.  377 

the  mixture  of  bad  men  who  have  ill-managed  and 
abused  it,  (which  had  our  fathers  done  heretofore, 
and  on  the  same  pretence  deserted  true  religion, 
what  had  long  ere  this  become  of  our  Gospel,  and 
all  Protestant  reformation,  so  much  intermixed 
with  the  avarice  and  ambition  of  some  reformers  ?) 
and  by  thus  relapsing,  to  verify  all  the  bitter  pre- 
dictions of  our  triumphing  enemies,  who  will  now 
think  they  wisely  discerned  and  justly  censured 
both  us  and  all  our  actions  as  rash,  rebellious, 
hypocritical,  and  impious ;  not  only  argues  a 
strange,  degenerate  contagion  suddenly  spread 
among  us,  fitted  and  prepared  for  new  slavery, 
but  will  render  us  a  scorn  and  derision  to  all  our 
neighbors. 

And  what  will  they  at  best  say  of  us,  and  of  the 
whole  English  name,  but  scoffingly,  as  of  that 
foolish  builder  mentioned  by  our  Saviour,  who 
began  to  build  a  tower,  and  was  not  able  to  finish 
it?  Where  is  this  goodly  tower  of  a  common- 
wealth, which  the  English  boasted  they  would 
build  to  overshadow  kings,  and  be  another  Rome 
in  the  West?  The  foundation  indeed  they  lay 
gallantly,  but  fell  into  a  worse  confusion,  not  of 
tongues,  but  of  factions,  than  those  at  the  tower 
of  Babel ;  and  have  left  no  memorial  of  their  work 
behind  them  remaining  but  in  the  common  laugh- 
ter of  Europe !  Which  must  needs  redound  the 
more  to  our  shame,  if  we  but  look  on  our  neighbors 
the  United  Provinces,  to  us  inferior  in  all  outward 


378       THE  READY  AND  EASY  WAY  TO 

advantages ;  who,  notwithstanding,  in  the  midst  of 
greater  difficulties,  courageously,  wisely,  constantly 
went  through  with  the  same  work,  and  are  settled 
in  all  the  happy  enjoyments  of  a  potent  and  flourish- 
ing republic  to  this  day. 

Besides  this,  if  we  return  to  kingship,  and  soon 
repent,  (as  undoubtedly  we  shall,  when  we  begin 
to  find  the  old  encroachment  coming  on  by  little 
and  little  upon  our  consciences,  which  must  neces- 
sarily proceed  from  king  and  bishop  united  in- 
separably in  one  interest,)  we  may  be  forced  per- 
haps to  fight  over  again  all  that  we  have  fought, 
and  spend  over  again  all  that  we  have  spent,  but 
are  never  like  to  attain  thus  far  as  we  are  now 
advanced  to  the  recovery  of  our  freedom,  never  to 
have  it  in  possession  as  we  now  have  it,  never  to 
be  vouchsafed  hereafter  the  like  mercies  and  signal 
assistances  from  Heaven  in  our  cause,  if  by  our  in- 
grateful  backsliding  we  make  these  fruitless  ;  flying 
now  to  regal  concessions  from  his  divine  condescen- 
sions and  gracious  answers  to  our  once  importuning 
prayers  against  the  tyranny  which  we  then  groaned 
under ;  making  vain  and  viler  than  dirt  the  blood  of 
so  many  thousand  faithful  and  valiant  Englishmen, 
who  left  us  in  this  liberty,  bought  with  their  lives ; 
losing  by  a  strange  after-game  of  folly  all  the 
battles  we  have  won,  together  with  all  Scotland  as 
to  our  conquest,  hereby  lost,  which  never  any  of 
our  kings  could  conquer,  all  the  treasure  we  have 
spent,  not  that  corruptible  treasure  only,  but  that 


ESTABLISH  A  FREE  COMMONWEALTH.  379 

far  more  precious  of  all  our  late  miraculous  deliver- 
ances ;  treading  back  again  with  lost  labor  all  our 
happy  steps  in  the  progress  of  reformation,  and 
most  pitifully  depriving  ourselves  the  instant  fru- 
ition of  that  free  government,  which  we  have  so 
dearly  purchased,  a  free  commonwealth,  not  only 
held  by  wisest  men  in  all  ages  the  noblest,  the 
manliest,  the  equallest,  the  justest  government,  the 
most  agreeable  to  all  due  liberty  and  proportioned 
equality,  both  human,  civil,  and  Christian,  most 
cherishing  to  virtue  and  true  religion,  but  also  (I 
may  say  it  with  greatest  probability)  plainly  com- 
mended, or  rather  enjoined  by  our  Saviour  himself, 
to  all  Christians,  not  without  remarkable  disallow- 
ance, and  the  brand  of  Gentilism  upon  king- 
ship  

It  may  be  well  wondered  that  any  nation,  styling 
themselves  free,  can  suffer  any  man  to  pretend 
hereditary  right  over  them  as  their  lord ;  whenas, 
by  acknowledging  that  right,  they  conclude  them- 
selves his  servants  and  his  vassals,  and  so  renounce 
their  own  freedom.  Which  how  a  people  and  their 
leaders  especially  can  do,  who  have  fought  so  glo- 
riously for  liberty ;  how  they  can  change  their 
noble  words  and  actions,  heretofore  so  becoming 
the  majesty  of  a  free  people,  into  the  base  necessity 
of  court  flatteries  and  prostrations,  is  not  only 
strange  and  admirable,  but  lamentable  to  think  on. 
That  a  nation  should  be  so  valorous  and  courageous 
to  win  their  liberty  in  the  field,  and  when  they 


380      THE  READY  AND  EASY  WAY  TO 

have  won  it,  should  be  so  heartless  and  unwise  in 
their  counsels,  as  not  to  know  how  to  use  it,  value 
it,  what  to  do  with  it,  or  with  themselves ;  but 
after  ten  or  twelve  years'  prosperous  war  and  con- 
testation with  tyranny,  basely  and  besottedly  to 
run  their  necks  again  into  the  yoke  which  they 
have  broken,  and  prostrate  all  the  fruits  of  their 
victory  for  naught  at  the  feet  of  the  vanquished, 
besides  our  loss  of  glory,  and  such  an  example  as 
kings  or  tyrants  never  yet  had  the  like  to  boast  of, 
will  be  an  ignominy  if  it  befall  us,  that  never  yet 
befell  any  nation  possessed  of  their  liberty ;  worthy 
indeed  themselves,  whatsoever  they  be,  to  be  for- 
ever slaves,  but  that  part  of  the  nation  which  con- 
sents not  with  them,  as  I  persuade  me  of  a  great 
number,  far  worthier  than  by  their  means  to  be 
brought  into  the  same  bondage. 

Considering  these  things  so  plain,  so  rational, 
I  cannot  but  yet  further  admire  on  the  other  side, 
how  any  man,  who  hath  the  true  principles  of  jus- 
tice and  religion  in  him,  can  presume  or  take  upon 
him  to  be  a  king  and  lord  over  his  brethren,  whom 
he  cannot  but  know,  whether  as  men  or  Christians, 
to  be  for  the  most  part  every  way  equal  or  superior 
to  himself:  how  he  can  display  with  such  vanity 
and  ostentation  his  regal  splendor,  so  supereminently 
above  other  mortal  men ;  or,  being  a  Christian,  can 
assume  such  extraordinary  honor  and  worship  to 
himself,  while  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  our  common 
king  and  lord,  is  hid  to  this  world,  and  such  Gentilish 


ESTABLISH  A  FREE  COMMONWEALTH.  381 

imitation  forbid  in  express  words  by  himself  to  all 
his  disciples.  All  Protestants  hold  that  Christ  in 
his  Church  hath  left  no  vicegerent  of  his  power ; 
but  himself,  without  deputy,  is  the  only  head  there- 
of, governing  it  from  heaven :  how  then  can  any 
Christian  man  derive  his  kingship  from  Christ,  but 
with  worse  usurpation  than  the  pope  his  headship 
over  the  Church,  since  Christ  not  only  hath  not 
left  the  least  shadow  of  a  command  for  any  such 
vicegerence  from  him  in  the  state,  as  the  pope  pre- 
tends for  his  in  the  Church,  but  hath  expressly 
declared  that  such  regal  dominion  is  from  the  Gen- 
tiles, not  from  him,  and  hath  strictly  charged  us 
not  to  imitate  them  therein?  .... 

To  make  the  people  fittest  to  choose,  and  the 
chosen  fittest  to  govern,  will  be  to  mend  our  cor- 
rupt and  faulty  education,  to  teach  the  people 
faith,  not  without  virtue,  temperance,  modesty, 
sobriety,  parsimony,  justice  ;  not  to  admire  wealth 
or  honor ;  to  hate  turbulence  and  ambition  ;  to 
place  every  one  his  private  welfare  and  happiness 
in  the  public  peace,  liberty,  and  safety 

The  whole  freedom  of  man  consists  either  in 
spiritual  or  civil  liberty.  As  for  spiritual,  who  can 
be  at  rest,  who  can  enjoy  anything  in  this  world 
with  contentment,  who  hath  not  liberty  to  serve 
God,  and  to  save  his  own  soul,  according  to  the 
best  light  which  God  hath  planted  in  him  to  that 
purpose,  by  the  reading  of  his  revealed  will,  and 
the  guidance  of  his  Holy  Spirit?  That  this  is 


382      THE  READY  AND  EASY  WAY  TO 

best  pleasing  to  God,  and  that  the  whole  Protestant 
Church  allows  no  supreme  judge  or  ruler  in  mat- 
ters of  religion,  but  the  Scriptures;  and  these  to 
be  interpreted  by  the  Scriptures  themselves,  which 
necessarily  infers  liberty  of  conscience,  I  have  here- 
tofore proved  at  large  in  another  treatise ;  and 
might  yet  further,  by  the  public  declarations,  con- 
fessions, and  admonitions  of  whole  churches  and 
states,  obvious  in  all  histories  since  the  Reforma- 
tion. 

This  liberty  of  conscience,  which  above  all  other 
things  ought  to  be  to  all  men  dearest  and  most 
precious,  no  government  more  inclinable  not  to 
favor  only,  but  to  protect,  than  a  free  common- 
wealth ;  as  being  most  magnanimous,  most  fearless, 
and  confident  of  its  own  fair  proceedings.  Where- 
as kingship,  though  looking  big,  yet  indeed  most 
pusillanimous,  full  of  fears,  full  of  jealousies,  startled 
at  every  umbrage,  as  it  hath  been  observed  of  old 
to  have  ever  suspected  most  and  mistrusted  them 
who  were  in  most  esteem  for  virtue  and  generosity 
of  mind,  so  it  is  now  known  to  have  most  in  doubt 
and  suspicion  them  who  are  most  reputed  to  be 
religious.  Queen  Elizabeth,  though  herself  ac- 
counted so  good  a  Protestant,  so  moderate,  so 
confident  of  her  subjects'  love,  would  never  give 
way  so  much  as  to  Presbyterian  reformation  in  this 
land,  though  once  and  again  besought,  as  Camden 
relates ;  but  imprisoned  and  persecuted  the  very 
proposers  thereof,  alleging  it  as  her  mind  and 


ESTABLISH  A  FREE  COMMONWEALTH.  383 

maxim  unalterable,  that  such  reformation  would 
'diminish  regal  authority. 

What  liberty  of  conscience  can  we  then  expect 
of  others,  far  worse  principled  from  the  cradle, 
trained  up  and  governed  by  Popish  and  Spanish 
counsels,  and  on  such  depending  hitherto  for  sub- 
sistence ?  Especially  what  can  this  last  Parlia- 
ment expect,  who,  having  revived  lately  and  pub- 
lished the  covenant,  have  re-engaged  themselves, 
never  to  readmit  Episcopacy  ?  Which  no  son  of 
Charles  returning  but  will  most  certainly  bring 
back  with  him,  if  he  regard  the  last  and  strictest 
charge  of  his  father,  "  to  persevere  in,  not  the 
doctrine  only,  but  government  of  the  Church  of 
England,  not  to  neglect  the  speedy  and  effectual 
suppressing  of  errors  and  schisms  " ;  among  which 
he  accounted  Presbytery  one  of  the  chief. 

Or  if,  notwithstanding  that  charge  of  his  father, 
he  submit  to  the  covenant,  how  will  he  keep  faith 
to  us,  with  disobedience  to  him ;  or  regard  that 
faith  given,  which  must  be  founded  on  the  breach 
of  that  last  and  solemnest  paternal  charge,  and  the 
reluctance,  I  may  say  the  antipathy,  which  is  in 
all  kings,  against  Presbyterian  and  Independent 
discipline  ?  For  they  hear  the  Gospel  speaking 
much  of  liberty ;  a  word  which  monarchy  and  her 
bishops  both  fear  and  hate,  but  a  free  common- 
wealth both  favors  and  promotes ;  and  not  the 
word  only,  but  the  thing  itself.  But  let  our  gov- 
ernors beware  in  time,  lest  their  hard  measure  to 


384      THE  READY  AND  EASY  WAY  TO 

liberty  of  conscience  be  found  the  rock  whereon 
they  shipwreck  themselves,  as  others  have  now 
done  before  them  in  the  course  wherein  God  was 
directing  their  steerage  to  a  free  commonwealth ; 
and  the  abandoning  of  all  those  whom  they  call 
sectaries,  for  the  detected  falsehood  and  ambition 
of  some,  be  a  wilful  rejection  of  their  own  chief 
strength  and  interest  in  the  freedom  of  all  Prot- 
estant religion,  under  what  abusive  name  soever 
calumniated. 

The  other  part  of  our  freedom  consists  in  the 
civil  rights  and  advancements  of  every  person 
according  to  his  merit :  the  enjoyment  of  those 
never  more  certain,  and  the  access  to  these  never 
more  open,  than  in  a  free  commonwealth.  Both 
which,  in  my  opinion,  may  be  best  and  soonest 
obtained,  if  every  county  in  the  land  were  made  a 
kind  of  subordinate  commonalty  or  commonwealth, 
and  one  chief  town  or  more,  according  as  the  shire 
is  in  circuit,  made  cities,  if  they  be  not  so  called 
already  ;  where  the  nobility  and  chief  gentry,  from 
a  proportionable  compass  of  territory  annexed  to 
each  city,  may  build  houses  or  palaces  befitting 
their  quality ;  may  bear  part  in  the  government, 
make  their  own  judicial  laws,  or  use  those  that 
are,  and  execute  them  by  their  own  elected  judica- 
tures and  judges  without  appeal,  in  all  things  of 
civil  government  between  man  and  man.  So  they 
shall  have  justice  in  their  own  hands,  law  executed 
fully  and  finally  in  their  own  counties  and  pre- 


ESTABLISH  A  FREE  COMMONWEALTH.  385 

cincts,  long  wished  and  spoken  of,  but  never  yet 
obtained.  They  shall  have  none  then  to  blame 
but  themselves,  if  it  be  not  well  administered ;  and 
fewer  laws  to  expect  or  fear  from  the  supreme 
authority ;  or  to  those  that  shall  be  made,  of  any 
great  concernment  to  public  liberty,  they  may, 
without  much  trouble  in  these  commonalties,  or  in 
more  general  assemblies  called  to  their  cities  from 
the  whole  territory  on  such  occasion,  declare  and 
publish  their  assent  or  dissent  by  deputies,  within  a 
time  limited,  sent  to  the  grand  council ;  yet  so  as 
this  their  judgment  declared  shall  submit  to  the 
greater  number  of  other  counties  or  commonalties, 
and  not  avail  them  to  any  exemption  of  themselves, 
or  refusal  of  agreement  with  the  rest,  as  it  may  in 
any  of  the  United  Provinces,  being  sovereign 
within  itself,  ofttimes  to  the  great  disadvantage 
of  that  union. 

In  these  employments  they  may,  much  better 
than  they  do  now,  exercise  and  fit  themselves  till 
their  lot  fall  to  be  chosen  into  the  grand  council, 
according  as  their  worth  and  merit  shall  be  taken 
notice  of  by  the  people.  As  for  controversies  that 
shall  happen  between  men  of  several  counties, 
they  may  repair,  as  they  do  now,  to  the  capital 
city,  or  any  other  more  commodious,  indifferent 
place,  and  equal  judges.  And  this  I  find  to  have 
been  practised  in  the  old  Athenian  commonwealth, 
reputed  the  first  and  ancientest  place  of  civility  in 
all  Greece  ;  that  they  had  in  their  several  cities  a 

17  Y 


386      THE  READY  AND  EASY  WAY  TO 

peculiar,  in  Athens  a  common  government ;  and 
their  right,  as  it  befell  them,  to  the  administration 
of  both. 

They  should  have  here  also  schools  and  acade- 
mies at  their  own  choice,  wherein  their  children  may 
be  bred  up  in  their  own  sight  to  all  learning  and 
noble  education  ;  not  in  grammar  only,  but  in  all 
liberal  arts  and  exercises.  This  would  soon  spread 
much  more  knowledge  and  civility,  yea,  religion, 
through  all  parts  of  the  land,  by  communicating 
the  natural  heat  of  government  and  culture  more 
distributively  to  all  extreme  parts,  which  now  lie 
numb  and  neglected ;  would  soon  make  the  whole 
nature  more  industrious,  more  ingenious  at  home, 
more  potent,  more  honorable  abroad.  To  this  a 
free  commonwealth  will  easily  assent ;  (nay,  the 
Parliament  hath  had  already  some  such  thing  in 
design ;)  for  of  all  governments  a  commonwealth 
aims  most  to  make  the  people  flourishing,  virtu- 
ous, noble,  and  high-spirited.  Monarchs  will  never 
permit ;  whose  aim  is  to  make  the  people  wealthy 
indeed  perhaps,  and  well  fleeced,  for  their  own 
shearing,  and  the  supply  of  regal  prodigality ;  but 
otherwise  softest,  basest,  viciousest,  servilest,  easi- 
est to  be  kept  under.  And  not  only  in  fleece,  but 
in  mind  also  sheepishest ;  and  will  have  all  the 
benches  of  judicature  annexed  to  the  throne,  as  a 
gift  of  royal  grace,  that  we  have  justice  done  us ; 
whenas  nothing  can  be  more  essential  to  the  free- 
dom of  a  people,  than  to  have  the  administration 


ESTABLISH  A  FREE  COMMONWEALTH.  387 

of  justice,  and  all  public  ornaments,  in  their  own 
election,  and  within  their  own  bounds,  without 
long  travelling  or  depending  upon  remote  places 
to  obtain  their  right,  or  any  civil  accomplishment ; 
so  it  be  not  supreme,  but  subordinate  to  the  gen- 
eral power  and  union  of  the  whole  republic 

I  have  no  more  to  say  at  present :  few  words 
will  save  us,  well  considered ;  few  and  easy  things, 
now  seasonably  done.  But  if  the  people  be  so  af- 
fected as  to  prostitute  religion  and  liberty  to  the 
vain  and  groundless  apprehension,  that  nothing  but 
kingship  can  restore  trade,  not  remembering  the 
frequent  plagues  and  pestilences  that  then  wasted 
this  city,  such  as  through  God's  mercy  we  never 
have  felt  since  ;  and  that  trade  flourishes  nowhere 
more  than  in  the  free  commonwealths  of  Italy, 
Germany,  and  the  Low  Countries,  before  their 
eyes  at  this  day ;  yet  if  trade  be  grown  so  craving 
and  importunate  through  the  profuse  living  of 
tradesmen,  that  nothing  can  support  it  but  the  lux- 
urious expenses  of  a  nation  upon  trifles  or  super- 
fluities ;  so  as  if  the  people  generally  should  betake 
themselves  to  frugality,  it  might  prove  a  dangerous 
matter,  lest  tradesmen  should  mutiny  for  want  of 
trading;  and  that  therefore  we  must  forego  and 
set  to  sale  religion,  liberty,  honor,  safety,  all  con- 
cernments divine  or  human,  to  keep  up  trading : 
if,  lastly,  after  all  this  light  among  us,  the  same 
reason  shall  pass  for  current,  to  put  our  necks 
again  under  kingship,  as  was  made  use  of  by  the 


388  A   F£EE  COMMONWEALTH. 

Jews  to  return  back  to  Egypt,  and  to  the  worship 
of  their  idol  queen,  because  they  falsely  imagined 
that  they  then  lived  in  more  plenty  and  prosper- 
ity ;  our  condition  is  not  sound,  but  rotten,  both  hi 
religion  and  all  civil  prudence ;  and  will  bring  us 
soon,  the  way  we  are  marching,  to  those  calamities, 
which  attend  always  and  unavoidably  on  luxury, 
all  national  judgments  under  foreign  and  domestic 
slavery :  so  far  we  shall  be  from  mending  our  con- 
dition by  monarchizing  our  government,  whatever 
new  conceit  now  possesses  us. 


FROM 

THE   HISTORY   OF  BRITAIN. 

rY  this  time,  like  one  who  had  set  out 
on  his  way  by  night,  and  travelled 
through  a  region  of  smooth  or  idle 
dreams,  our  history  now  arrives  on  the 
confines,  where  daylight  and  truth  meet  us  with  a 
clear  dawn,  representing  to  our  view,  though  at  a 

far  distance,  true  colors  and  shapes 

Worthy  deeds  are  not  often  destitute  of  worthy 
relaters ;  as,  by  a  certain  fate,  great  acts  and  great 
eloquence  have  most  commonly  gone  hand  in  hand, 
equalling  and  honoring  each  other  in  the  same 
ages.  It  is  true,  that  in  obscurest  times,  by  shal- 
low and  unskilful  writers,  the  indistinct  noise  of 
many  battles  and  devastations  of  many  kingdoms, 
overrun  and  lost,  hath  come  to  our  ears.  For 
what  wonder,  if  in  all  ages,  ambition  and  the  love 
of  rapine  hath  stirred  up  greedy  and  violent  men 
to  bold  attempts  in  wasting  and  ruining  wars, 
which  to  posterity  have  left  the  work  of  wild 
beasts  and  destroyers,  rather  than  the  deeds  and 


390      FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN. 

monuments  of  men  and  conquerors  ?  But  he 
whose  just  and  true  valor  uses  the  necessity  of  war 
and  dominion  not  to  destroy,  but  to  prevent  de- 
struction, to  bring  in  liberty  against  tyrants,  law 
and  civility  among  barbarous  nations,  knowing  that 
when  he  conquers  all  things  else,  he  cannot  con- 
quer Time  or  Detraction,  wisely  conscious  of  this 
his  want,  as  well  as  of  his  worth  not  to  be  forgot- 
ten or  concealed,  honors  and  hath  recourse  to  the 
aid  of  eloquence,  his  friendliest  and  best  supply  ; 
by  whose  immortal  record  his  noble  deeds,  which 
else  were  transitory,  become  fixed  and  durable 
against  the  force  of  years  and  generations,  he  fails 
not  to  continue  through  all  posterity,  over  Envy, 
Death,  and  Time  also  victorious.  Therefore,  when 
the  esteem  of  science  and  liberal  study  waxes  low 
in  the  commonwealth,  we  may  presume  that  also 
there  all  civil  virtue  and  worthy  action  is  grown  as 
low  to  a  decline :  and  then  eloquence  as  it  were 
consorted  in  the  same  destiny,  with  the  decrease 
and  fall  of  virtue,  corrupts  also  and  fades ;  at 
least  resigns  her  office  of  relating  to  illiterate  and 
frivolous  historians,  such  as  the  persons  themselves 
both  deserve,  and  are  best  pleased  with ;  whilst 
they  want  either  the  understanding  to  choose  bet- 
ter, or  the  innocence  to  dare  invite  the  examining 
and  searching  style  of  an  intelligent  and  faithful 
writer  to  the  survey  of  their  unsound  exploits,  bet- 
ter befriended  by  obscurity  than  fame 

Thus  expired  this  great  empire  of  the  Romans ; 


FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN.      391 

first  in  Britain,  soon  after  in  Italy  itself;  having 
borne  chief  sway  in  this  island,  though  never  thor- 
oughly subdued,  or  all  at  once  in  subjection,  if  we 
reckon  from  the  coming  in  of  Julius,  to  the  taking 
of  Rome  by  Alaric,  in  which  year  Honorius  wrote 
those  letters  of  discharge  into  Britain,  the  space  of 
four  hundred  and  sixty-two  years.  And  with  the 
empire  fell  also  what  before  in  this  Western  world 
was  chiefly  Roman ;  learning,  valor,  eloquence, 
history,  civility,  and  even  language  itself,  all  these 
together,  as  it  were,  with  equal  peace,  diminishing 
and  decaying.  Henceforth  we  are  to  steer  by  an- 
other sort  of  authors ;  near  enough  to  the  things 
they  write,  as  in  their  own  country,  if  that  would 
serve ;  in  time  not  much  belated,  some  of  equal 
age ;  in  expression  barbarous,  and  to  say  how  ju- 
dicious, I  suspend  a  while :  this  we  must  expect ; 
in  civil  matters  to  find  them  dubious  relaters,  and 
still  to  the  best  advantage  of  what  they  term  the 
Holy  Church,  meaning  indeed  themselves :  in  most 
other  matters  of  religion,  blind,  astonished,  and 
struck  with  superstition  as  with  a  planet ;  in  one 
word,  monks.  Yet  these  guides,  where  can  be  had 
no  better,  must  be  foUowed ;  in  gross,  it  may  be 
true  enough  ;  in  circumstances  each  man,  as  his 
judgment  gives  him,  may  reserve  his  faith,  or 

bestow  it 

Of  these  who  swayed  most  in  the  late  troubles, 
a  few  words  as  to  this  point  may  suffice.  They 
had  arms,  leaders,  and  successes  to  their  wish,  but 


392      FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN. 

to  make  use  of  so  great  an  advantage  was  not  their 
Skill. 

To  other  causes  therefore,  and  not  to  the  want 
of  force,  or  warlike  manhood  in  the  Britons,  both 
those,  and  these  lately,  we  must  impute  the  ill 
husbanding  of  those  fair  opportunities,  which  might 
seem  to  have  put  liberty,  so  long  desired,  like  a 
bridle  into  their  hands.  Of  which  other  causes, 
equally  belonging  to  ruler,  priest,  and  people,  above 
hath  been  related:  which,  as  they  brought  those 
ancient  natives  to  misery  and  ruin,  by  liberty, 
which  rightly  used,  might  have  made  them  happy ; 
so  brought  they  these  of  late,  after  many  labors, 
much  bloodshed,  and  vast  expense,  to  ridiculous 
frustration,  in  whom  the  like  defects,  the  like  mis- 
carriages notoriously  appeared,  with  vices  not  less 
hateful  or  inexcusable. 

For  a  Parliament  being  called,  to  address  many 
•things,  as  it  was  thought,  the  people  with  great 
courage,  and  expectation  to  be  eased  of  what  dis- 
contented them,  chose  their  behoof  in  Parliament, 
such  as  they  thought  best  affected  to  the  public 
good,  and  some  indeed  men  of  wisdom  and  integ- 
rity ;  the  rest,  (to  be  sure  the  greater  part,)  whom 
wealth  or  ample  possessions,  or  bold  and  active 
ambition  (rather  than  merit)  had  commended  to 
the  same  place. 

But  when  once  the  superficial  zeal  and  pop- 
ular fumes  that  acted  their  New  magistracy  were 
cooled,  and  spent  in  them,  straight  every  one  be- 


FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN.      393 

took  himself  (setting  the  commonwealth  behind, 
his  private  ends  before)  to  do  as  his  own  profit  or 
ambition  led  him.  Then  was  justice  delayed,  and 
soon  after  denied :  spite  and  favor  determined 
all ;  hence  faction,  thence  treachery,  both  at  home 
and  in  the  field :  everywhere  wrong  and  op- 
pression :  foul  and  horrid  deeds  committed  daily, 
or  maintained  in  secret,  or  in  open.  Some  who 
had  been  called  from  shops  and  warehouses,  without 
other  merit,  to  sit  in  supreme  councils  and  com- 
mittees, (as  their  breeding  was,)  fell  to  huckster 
the  commonwealth.  Others  did  thereafter  as  men 
could  soothe  and  humor  them  best;  so  he  who 
would  give  most,  or,  under  cover  of  hypocritical 
zeal,  insinuate  basest,  enjoyed  unworthily  the  re- 
wards of  learning  and  fidelity ;  or  escaped  the  pun- 
ishment of  his  crimes  and  misdeeds.  Their  votes 
and  ordinances,  which  men  looked  should  have 
contained  the  repealing  of  bad  laws,  and  the  imme- 
diate constitution  of  better,  resounded  with  noth- 
ing else  but  new  impositions,  taxes,  excises ;  yearly, 
monthly,  weekly.  Not  to  reckon  the  offices,  gifts, 
and  preferments  bestowed  and  shared  among  them- 
selves :  they  in  the  mean  while,  who  were  ever 
faithfullest  to  this  cause,  and  freely  aided  them  in 
person,  or  with  their  substance,  when  they  durst 
not  compel  either,  slighted  and  bereaved  after  of 
their  just  debts  by  greedy  sequestrations,  were 
tossed  up  and  down  after  miserable  attendance 
from  one  committee  to  another  with  petitions  in 
17* 


394      FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN. 

their  hands,  yet  either  missed  the  obtaining  of  their 
suit,  or  though  it  were  at  length  granted,  (mere 
shame  and  reason  ofttimes  extorting  from  them  at 
least  a  show  of  justice,)  yet  by  their  sequestrators 
and  sub-committees  abroad,  men  for  the  most  part 
of  insatiable  hands,  and  noted  disloyalty,  those 
orders  were  commonly  disobeyed :  which  for  cer- 
tain durst  not  have  been,  without  secret  compli- 
ance, if  not  compact,  with  some  superiors  able  to 
bear  them  out.  Thus  were  their  friends  confiscate 
with  their  enemies,  while  they  forfeited  their  debt- 
ors to  the  state,  as  they  called  it,  but  indeed  to  the 
ravening  seizure  of  innumerable  thieves  in  office  : 
yet  withal  no. less  burdened  in  all  extraordinary 
assessments  and  oppressions,  than  those  whom  they 
took  to  be  disaffected :  nor  were  we  happier  cred- 
itors to  what  we  called  the  state,  than  to  them  who 
were  sequestered  as  the  state's  enemies. 

For  that  faith  which  ought  to  have  been  kept  as 
sacred  and  inviolable  as  anything  holy,  "  the  Pub- 
lic Faith,"  after  infinite  sums  received,  and  all  the 
wealth  of  the  Church  not  better  employed,  but 
swallowed  up  into  a  private  gulf,  was  not  erelong 
ashamed  to  confess  bankrupt.  And  now  beside  the 
sweetness  of  bribery,  and  other  gain,  with  the  love 
of  rule,  their  own  guiltiness  and  the  dreaded  name 
of  Just  Account,  which  the  people  had  long  called 
for,  discovered  plainly  that  there  were  of  their  own 
number,  who  secretly  contrived  and  fomented  those 
troubles  and  combustions  in  the  land,  which  openly 


FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN.      395 

they  sat  to  remedy ;  and  would  continually  find 
such  work,  as  should  keep  them  from  being  ever 
brought  to  that  Terrible  Stand  of  laying  down 
their  authority  for  lack  of  new  business,  or  not 
drawing  it  out  to  any  length  of  time,  though  upon 
the  ruin  of  a  whole  nation. 

And  if  the  state  were  in  this  plight,  religion  was 
not  in  much  better;  to  reform  which,  a  certain 
number  of  divines  were  called,  neither  chosen  by 
any  rule  or  custom  ecclesiastical,  nor  eminent  for 
either  piety  or  knowledge  above  others  left  out ; 
only  as  each  member  of  Parliament  in  his  private 
fancy  thought  fit,  so  elected  one  by  one.  The 
most  part  of  them  were  such  as  had  preached  and 
cried  down,  with  great  show  of  zeal,  the  avarice 
and  pluralities  of  bishops  and  prelates ;  that  one  cure 
of  souls  was  a  full  employment  for  one  spiritual  pas- 
tor, how  able  soever,  if  not  a  charge  rather  above 
human  strength.  Yet  these  conscientious  men  (ere 
any  part  of  the  work  done  for  which  they  came 
together,  and  that  on  the  public  salary)  wanted  not 
boldness,  to  the  ignominy  and  scandal  of  their 
pastorlike  profession,  and  especially  of  their  boasted 
reformation,  to  seize  into  their  hands,  or  not  unwill- 
ingly to  accept  (besides  one,  sometimes  two  or 
more  of  the  best  livings)  collegiate  masterships  in 
the  universities,  rich  lectures  in  the  city,  setting 
sail  to  all  winds  that  might  blow  gain  into  their 
covetous  bosoms ;  by  which  means  these  great  re- 
bukers  of  non-residence,  among  so  many  distant 


396      FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN. 

cures,  were  not  ashamed  to  be  seen  so  quickly 
pluralists  and  non-residents  themselves,  to  a  fearful 
condemnation,  doubtless  by  their  own  mouths. 
And  yet  the  main  doctrine  for  which  they  took 
such  pay,  and  insisted  upon  with  more  vehemence 
than  Gospel,  was  but  to  tell  us  in  effect,  that  their 
doctrine  was  worth  nothing,  and  the  spiritual  power 
of  their  ministry  less  available  than  bodily  com- 
pulsion ;  persuading  the  magistrate  to  use  it,  as  a 
stronger  means  to  subdue  and  bring  in  conscience, 
than  evangelical  persuasion  :  distrusting  the  virtue 
of  their  own  spiritual  weapons,  which  were  given 
them,  if  they  be  rightly  called,  with  full  warrant 
of  sufficiency  to  pull  down  all  thoughts  and  imagina- 
tions that  exalt  themselves  against  God.  But  while 
they  taught  compulsion  without  convincement, 
which  not  long  before  they  complained  of  as 
executed  unchristianly,  against  themselves ;  these 
intents  are  clear  to  have  been  no  better  than  anti- 
christian  ;  setting  up  a  spiritual  tyranny  by  a  sec- 
ular power,  to  the  advancing  of  their  own  authority 
above  the  magistrate,  whom  they  would  have  made 
their  executioner,  to  punish  Church-delinquencies, 
whereof  civil  laws  have  no  cognizance. 

And  well  did  their  disciples  manifest  themselves 
to  be  no  better  principled  than  their  teachers, 
trusted  with  committeeships  and  other  gainful  offi- 
ces, upon  their  commendations  for  zealous,  (and  as 
they  sticked  not  to  term  them,)  godly  men ;  but 
executing  their  places  like  children  of  the  Devil, 


FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN.      397 

unfaithfully,  unjustly,  unmercifully,  and,  where 
not  corruptly,  stupidly.  So  that  between  them  the 
teachers,  and  these  the  disciples,  there  hath  not 
been  a  more  ignominious  and  mortal  wound  to 
faith,  to  piety,  to  the  work  of  reformation,  nor 
more  cause  of  blaspheming  given  to  the  enemies 
of  God  and  truth,  since  the  first  preaching  of 
reformation. 

The  people  therefore  looking  one  while  on  the 
statists,  whom  they  beheld  without  constancy  or 
firmness  laboring  doubtfully  beneath  the  weight 
of  their  own  too  high  undertakings,  busiest  in  petty 
things,  trifling  in  the  main,  deluded  and  quite 
alienated,  expressed  divers  ways  their  disaffection  ; 
some  despising  whom  before  they  honored,  some 
deserting,  some  inveighing,  some  conspiring  against 
them.  Then  looking  on  the  churchmen,  whom 
they  saw  under  subtle  hypocrisy  to  have  preached 
their  own  follies,  most  of  them  not  the  Gospel, 
timeservers,  covetous,  illiterate  persecutors,  not 
lovers  of  the  truth,  like  in  most  things  whereof 
they  accused  their  predecessors ;  looking  on  all 
this,  the  people  which  had  been  kept  warm  awhile 
with  counterfeit  zeal  of  their  pulpits,  after  a 
false  heat,  became  more  cold  and  obdurate  than 
before,  some  turning  to  lewdness,  some  to  flat 
atheism,  put  beside  their  old  religion,  and  foully 
scandalized  in  what  they  expected  should  be 
new. 

Thus  they  who  of  late  were  extolled  as  our 


398      FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN. 

greatest  deliverers,  and  had  the  people  wholly  at 
their  devotion,  by  so  discharging  their  trust  as  we 
see,  did  not  only  weaken  and  unfit  themselves  to 
be  dispensers  of  what  liberty  they  pretended,  but 
unfitted  also  the  people,  now  grown  worse  and 
more  disordinate,  to  receive  or  to  digest  any  liberty 
at  all.  For  stories  teach  us,  that  liberty  sought 
out  of  season,  in  a  corrupt  and  degenerate  age, 
brought  Rome  itself  to  a  farther  slavery :  for  lib- 
erty hath  a  sharp  and  double  edge,  fit  only  to  be 
handled  by  just  and  virtuous  men ;  to  bad  and 
dissolute,  it  becomes  a  mischief  unwieldy  in  their 
own  hands :  neither  is  it  completely  given,  but  by 
them  who  have  the  happy  skill  to  know  what  is 
grievance  and  unjust  to  a  people,  and  how  to  re- 
move it  wisely ;  what  good  laws  are  wanting,  and 
how  to  frame  them  substantially,  that  good  men 
may  enjoy  the  freedom  whch  they  merit,  and  the 
bad  the  curb  which  they  need.  But  to  do  this, 
and  to  know  these  exquisite  proportions,  the  heroic 
wisdom  which  is  required,  surmounted  far  the 
principles  of  these  narrow  politicians :  what  won- 
der then  if  they  sunk  as  these  unfortunate  Britons 
before  them,  entangled  and  oppressed  with  things 
too  hard  and  generous  above  their  strain  and  tem- 
per ?  For  Britain,  to  speak  a  truth  not  often 
spoken,  as  it  is  a  land  fruitful  enough  of  men  stout 
and  courageous  in  war,  so  it  is  naturally  not  over- 
fertile  of  men  able  to  govern  justly  and  prudently 
in  peace,  trusting  only  in  their  mother- wit ;  who 


FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN.      399 

consider  not  justly,  that  civility,  prudence,  love  of 
the  public  good,  more  than  of  money  or  vain  honor, 
are  to  this  soil  in  a  manner  outlandish  :  grow  not 

7     O 

here,  but  in  minds  well  implanted  with  solid  and 
elaborate  breeding,  too  impolitic  else  and  rude,  if 
not  headstrong  and  intractable  to  the  industry  and 
virtue  either  of  executing  or  understanding  true 
civil  government.  Valiant  indeed,  and  prosperous 
to  win  a  field  ;  but  to  know  the  end  and  reason  of 
winning  unjudicious  and  unwise :  in  good  or  bad 
success  alike  unteachable.  For  the  sun,  which 
we  want,  ripens  wits  as  well  as  fruits  ;  and  as  wine 
and  oil  are  imported  to  us  from  abroad,  so  must 
ripe  understanding,  and  many  civil  virtues,  be  im- 
ported into  our  minds  from  foreign  writings,  and 
examples  of  best  ages :  we  shall  else  miscarry  still, 
and  come  short  in  the  attempts  of  any  great  enter- 
prise. Hence  did  their  victories  prove  as  fruitless 
as  their  losses  dangerous ;  and  left  them  still  con- 
quering under  the  same  grievances  that  men  suffer 
conquered ;  which  was  indeed  unlikely  to  go  other- 
wise, unless  men  more  than  vulgar  bred  up,  as  few 
of  them  were,  in  the  knowledge  of  ancient  and 
illustrious  deeds,  invincible  against  many  and  vain 
titles,  impartial  to  friendships  and  relations,  had 
conducted  their  affairs:  but  then  from  the  chap- 
man to  the  retailer,  many  whose  ignorance  was 
more  audacious  than  the  rest,  were  admitted,  with 
all  their  sordid  rudiments,  to  bear  no  mean  sway 
among  them,  both  in  church  and  state. 


400      FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN. 

From  the  confluence  of  all  their  errors,  mischiefs, 
and  misdemeanors,  what  in  the  eyes  of  men  could 
be  expected,  but  what  befell  those  ancient  inhabi- 
tants, whom  they  so  much  resembled,  confusion  in 
the  end  ? 


FROM  THE  TREATISE 

OF  TRUE  RELIGION,  HERESY,  SCHISM, 
TOLERATION. 


RUE  religion  is  the  true  worship  and 
service  of  God,  learned  and  believed 
from  the  word  of  God  only.  No  man 
or  angel  can  know  how  God  would  be 
worshipped  and  served  unless  God  reveal  it:  he 
hath  revealed  and  taught  it  us  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures by  inspired  ministers,  and  in  the  Gospel  by 
his  own  Son  and  his  Apostles,  with  strictest  com- 
mand, to  reject  all  other  traditions  or  additions 

whatsoever 

With  good  and  religious  reason,  therefore,  all 
Protestant  churches  with  one  consent,  and  par- 
ticularly the  Church  of  England  in  her  thirty-nine 
articles,  article  6th,  19th,  20th,  21st,  and  else- 
where, maintain  these  two  points,  as  the  main 
principles  of  true  religion,  —  that  the  rule  of  true 
religion  is  the  word  of  God  only;  and  that  their 
faith  ought  not  to  be  an  implicit  faith,  that  is,  to 
believe,  though  as  the  Church  believes,  against  or 
without  express  authority  of  Scripture.  And  if 


402  OF  TRUE  RELIGION, 

all  Protestants,  as  universally  as  they  hold  these 
two  principles,  so  attentively  and  religiously  would 
observe  them,  they  would  avoid  and  cut  off  many 
debates  and  contentions,  schisms  and  persecutions, 
which  too  oft  have  been  among  them,  and  more 
firmly  unite  against  the  common  adversary.  For 
hence  it  directly  follows,  that  no  true  Protestant 
can  persecute,  or  not  tolerate,  his  fellow-Protestant, 
though  dissenting  from  him  in  some  opinions,  but 
he  must  flatly  deny  and  renounce  these  two  his 
own  main  principles,  whereon  true  religion  is 
founded ;  while  he  compels  his  brother  from  that 
which  he  believes  as  the  manifest  word  of  God,  to 
an  implicit  faith  (which  he  himself  condemns)  to 
the  endangering  of  his  brother's  soul,  whether  by 
rash  belief,  or  outward  conformity :  for  "  whatso- 
ever is  not  of  faith  is  sin."  .... 

Let  us  now  inquire  whether  Popery  be  tolerable 
or  no.  Popery  is  a  double  thing  to  deal  with,  and 
claims  a  twofold  power,  ecclesiastical  and  political, 
both  usurped,  and  the  one  supporting  the  other. 

But,  ecclesiastical  is  ever  pretended  to  political. 
The  pope  by  this  mixed  faculty  pretends  right,  to 
kingdoms  and  states,  and  especially  to  this  of  Eng- 
land, thrones  and  unthrones  kings,  and  absolves 
the  people  from  their  obedience  to  them  ;  some- 
times interdicts  to  whole  nations  the  public  worship 
of  God,  shutting  up  their  churches :  and  was  wont 
to  drain  away  greatest  part  of  the  wrealth  of  this 
then  miserable  land,  as  part  of  his  patrimony,  to 


HERESY,  SCHISM,  TOLERATION.        403 

maintain  the  pride  and  luxury  of  his  court  and 
prelates ;  and  now,  since,  through  the  infinite 
mercy  and  favor  of  God,  we  have  shaken  off  his 
Babylonish  yoke,  hath  not  ceased  by  his  spies  and 
agents,  bulls  and  emissaries,  once  to  destroy  both 
king  and  Parliament ;  perpetually  to  seduce,  cor- 
rupt, and  pervert  as  many  as  they  can  of  the 
people.  Whether  therefore  it  be  fit  or  reasonable 
to  tolerate  men  thus  principled  in  religion  towards 
the  state,  I  submit  it  to  the  consideration  of  all 
magistrates,  who  are  best  able  to  provide  for  their 
own  and  the  public  safety.  As  for  tolerating  the 
exercise  of  their  religion,  supposing  their  state- 
activities  not  to  be  dangerous,  I  answer,  that  tol- 
eration is  either  public  or  private ;  and  the  exercise 
of  their  religion,  as  far  as  it  is  idolatrous,  can  be 
tolerated  neither  way :  not  publicly,  without  griev- 
ous and  unsufferable  scandal  given  to  all  consci- 
entious beholders ;  not  privately,  without  great 
offence  to  God,  declared  against  all  kind  of  idolatry, 
though  secret.  Ezek.  viii.  7,  8. 

Having  shown  thus,  that  Popery,  as  being  idol- 
atrous, is  not  to  be  tolerated  either  in  public  or 
private ;  it  must  be  now  thought  how  to  remove  it, 
and  hinder  the  growth  thereof,  I  mean  in  our 
natives,  and  not  foreigners,  privileged  by  the  law 
of  nations.  Are  we  to  punish  them  by  corporal 
punishment,  or  fines  in  their  estates,  upon  account 
of  their  religion  ?  I  suppose  it  stands  not  with  the 


404  OF  TRUE  RELIGION, 

clemency  of  the  Gospel,  more  than  what  apper- 
tains to  the  security  of  the  state :  but  first  we  must 
remove  their  idolatry,  and  all  the  furniture  thereof, 
whether  idols  or  the  mass  wherein  they  adore  their 
God  under  bread  and  wine  :  for  the  commandment 
forbids  to  adore,  not  only  "any  graven  image, 
but  the  likeness  of  anything  in  heaven  above,  or 
in  the  earth  beneath,  or  in  the  water  under  the 
earth ;  thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  them  nor 
worship  them,  for  I  the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous 
God."  If  they  say,  that  by  removing  their  idols 
we  violate  their  consciences,  we  have  no  warrant 
to  regard  conscience  which  is  not  grounded  on 
Scripture :  and  they  themselves  confess,  in  their 
late  defences,  that  they  hold  not  their  images 
necessary  to  salvation,  but  only  as  they  are  en- 
joined them  by  tradition 

St.  Paul  judged,  that  not  only  to  tolerate,  but 
to  examine  and  prove  all  things,  was  no  danger  to 
our  holding  fast  that  which  is  good.  How  shall 
we  prove  all  things,  which  includes  all  opinions  at 
least  founded  on  Scripture,  unless  we  not  only  tol- 
erate them,  but  patiently  hear  them,  and  seriously 
read  them?  If  he  who  thinks  himself  in  the 
truth  professes  to  have  learnt  it,  not  by  implicit 
faith,  but  by  attentive  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
full  persuasion  of  heart,  with  what  equity  can  he 
refuse  to  hear  or  read  him  who  demonstrates  to 
have  gained  his  knowledge  by  the  same  way  ?  Is 
it  a  fair  course  to  assert  truth,  by  arrogating  to 


HERESY,   SCHISM,    TOLERATION.       405 

himself  the  only  freedom  of  speech,  and  stopping 
the  mouths  of  others  equally  gifted?  This  is  the 
direct  way  to  bring  in  that  Papistical  implicit  faith, 
which  we  all  disclaim.  They  pretend  it  would 
unsettle  the  weaker  sort ;  the  same  groundless  fear 
is  pretended  by  the  Romish  clergy.  At  least,  then, 
let  them  have  leave  to  write  in  Latin,  which  the 
common  people  understand  not ;  that  what  they 
hold  may  be  discussed  among  the  learned  only. 
We  suffer  the  idolatrous  books  of  Papists,  without 
this  fear,  to  be  sold  and  read  as  common  as  our 
own :  why  not  much  rather  of  Anabaptists,  Arians, 
Arminians,  and  Socinians  ?  There  is  no  learned 
man  but  will  confess  he  hath  much  profited  by 
reading  controversies,  his  senses  awakened,  his 
judgment  sharpened,  and  the  truth  which  he  holds 
more  firmly  established.  If  then  it  be  profitable 
for  him  to  read,  why  should  it  not  at  least  be  tol- 
erable and  free  for  his  adversary  to  write  ?  In 
logic  they  teach,  that  contraries  laid  together  more 
evidently  appear :  it  follows,  then,  that  all  contro- 
versy being  permitted,  falsehood  will  appear  more 
false,  and  truth  the  more  true ;  which  must  needs 
conduce  much,  not  only  to  the  confounding  of 
Popery,  but  to  the  general  confirmation  of  unim- 
plicit  truth. 


FROM  THE 


FAMILIAR    LETTERS. 


To  BENEDETTO  BTJONMATTAI,  a  Florentine. 

AM  glad  to  hear,  my  dear  Buonmattai, 
that  you  are  preparing  new  institutes 
of  your  native  language,  and  have  just 
brought  the  work  to  a  conclusion.  The 
way  to  fame  which  you  have  chosen  is  the  same  as 
that  which  some  persons  of  the  first  genius  have 
embraced ;  and  your  fellow-citizens  seem  ardently 
to  expect  that  you  will  either  illustrate  or  amplify, 
or  at  least  polish  and  methodize,  the  labors  of  your 
predecessors.  By  such  a  work,  you  will  lay  your 
countrymen  under  no  common  obligation,  which 
they  will  be  ungrateful  if  they  do  not  acknowledge. 
For  I  hold  him  to  deserve  the  highest  praise  who 
fixes  the  principles  and  forms  the  manners  of  a 
state,  and  makes  the  wisdom  of  his  administration 
conspicuous  both  at  home  and  abroad.  But  I  as- 
sign the  second  place  to  him,  who  endeavors  by 
precepts  and  by  rules  to  perpetuate  that  style  and 
idiom  of  speech  and  composition  which  have  flour- 
ished in  the  purest  periods  of  the  language,  and 


FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS.      407 

who,  as  it  were,  throws  up  such  a  trench  around 
it,  that  people  may  be  prevented  from  going  be- 
yond the  boundary  almost  by  the  terrors  of  a 
Romulean  prohibition.  If  we  compare  the  benefits 
which  each  of  these  confer,  we  shall  find  that  the 
former  alone  can  render  the  intercourse  of  the  cit- 
izens just  and  conscientious,  but  that  the  latter 
gives  that  gentility,  that  elegance,  that  refinement 
which  are  next  to  be  desired.  The  one  inspires 
lofty  courage  and  intrepid  ardor  against  the  inva- 
sion of  an  enemy  ;  the  other  exerts  himself  to  an- 
nihilate that  barbarism  which  commits  more  exten- 
sive ravages  on  the  minds  of  men,  which  is  the 
intestine  enemy  of  genius  and  literature,  by  the 
taste  which  he  inspires,  and  the  good  authors 
which  he  causes  to  be  read.  Nor  do  I  think  it  a 
matter  of  little  moment  whether  the  language  of 
a.  people  be  vitiated  or  refined,  whether  the  popu- 
lar idiom  be  erroneous  or  correct.  This  considera- 
tion was  more  than  once  found  salutary  at  Athens. 
It  is  the  opinion  of  Plato,  that  changes  in  the 
dress  and  habits  of  the  citizens  portend  great  com- 
motions and  changes  in  the  state  ;  and  I  am  in- 
clined to  believe,  that  when  the  language  in  com- 
mon use  in  any  country  becomes  irregular  and 
depraved,  it  is  followed  by  their  ruin  or  their  deg- 
radation. For  what  do  terms  used  without  skill 
or  meaning,  which  are  at  once  corrupt  and  misap- 
plied, denote,  but  a  people  listless,  supine,  and  ripe 
for  servitude  ?  On  the  contrary,  we  have  never 


heard  of  any  people  or  state  which  has  not  flour- 
ished in  some  degree  of  prosperity  as  long  as  their 
language  has  retained  its  elegance  and  its  purity. 
Hence,  my  Benedetto,  you  may  be  induced  to 
proceed  in  executing  a  work  so  useful  to  your  coun- 
try, and  may  clearly  see  what  an  honorable  and 
permanent  claim  you  will  have  to  the  approbation 
and  the  gratitude  of  your  fellow-citizens.  Thus 
much  I  have  said,  not  to  make  you  acquainted 
with  that  of  which  you  were  ignorant,  but  because 
I  was  persuaded  that  you  are  more  intent  on  serv- 
ing your  country  than  in  considering  the  just  title 
which  you  have  to  its  remuneration.  I  will  now 
mention  the  favorable  opportunity  which  you  have, 
if  you  wish  to  embrace  it,  of  obliging  foreigners, 
among  whom  there  is  no  one  at  all  conspicuous 
for  genius  or  for  elegance  who  does  not  make  the 
Tuscan  language  his  delight,  and  indeed  consider 
it  as  an  essential  part  of  education,  particularly  if 
he  be  only  slightly  tinctured  with  the  literature  of 
Greece  or  of  Rome.  I,  who  certainly  have  not 
merely  wetted  the  tip  of  my  lips  in  the  stream  of 
those  languages,  but,  in  proportion  to  my  years, 
have  swallowed  the  most  copious  drafts,  can  yet 
sometimes  retire  with  avidity  and  delight  to  feast 
on  Dante,  Petrarch,  and  many  others  ;  nor  has 
Athens  itself  been  able  to  confine  me  to  the  trans- 
parent wave  of  its  Ilissus,  nor  ancient  Rome  to  the 
banks  of  its  Tiber,  so  as  to  prevent  my  visiting  with 
delight  the  stream  of  the  Arno,  and  the  hills  of 


FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS.       409 

Faesolae.  A  stranger  from  the  shores  of  the  far- 
thest ocean,  I  have  now  spent  some  days  among 
you,  and  am  become  quite  enamored  of  your  nation. 
Consider  whether  there  were  sufficient  reason  for 
my  preference,  that  you  may  more  readily  remem- 
ber what  I  so  earnestly  importune ;  that  you 
would,  for  the  sake  of  foreigners,  add  something 
to  the  grammar  which  you  have  begun,  and  in- 
deed almost  finished,  concerning  the  right  pro- 
nunciation of  the  language,  and  made  as  easy  as 
the  nature  of  the  subject  will  admit.  The  other 
critics  in  your  language  seem  to  this  day  to  have 
had  no  other  design  than  to  satisfy  their  own 
countrymen,  without  taking  any  concern  about 
anybody  else.  Though  I  think  that  they  would 
have  provided  better  for  their  own  reputation  and 
for  the  glory  of  the  Italian  language,  if  they  had 
delivered  their  precepts  in  such  a  manner  as  if  it 
was  for  the  interest  of  all  men  to  learn  their  lan- 
guage. But,  for  all  them,  we  might  think  that 
you  Italians  wished  to  confine  your  wisdom  within 
the  pomasrium  of  the  Alps.  This  praise,  therefore, 
which  no  one  has  anticipated,  will  be  entirely 
yours,  immaculate  and  pure  ;  nor  will  it  be  less  so 
if  you  will  be  at  the  pains  to  point  out  who  may 
justly  claim  the  second  rank  of  fame  after  the  re- 
nowned chiefs  of  the  Florentine  literature  ;  who 
excels  in  the  dignity  of  tragedy,  qr  the  festivity 
and  elegance  of  comedy ;  who  has  shown  acute- 
ness  of  remark  or  depth  of  reflection  in  his  epistles 

18 


410      FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS. 

or  dialogues  ;  to  whom  belongs  the  grandeur  of  the 
historic  style.  Thus  it  will  be  easy  for  the  student 
to  choose  the  best  writers  in  every  department ; 
and  if  he  wishes  to  extend  his  researches  further, 
he  will  know  which  way  to  take.  Among  the  an- 
cients, you  will  in  this  respect  find  Cicero  and  Fa- 
bius  deserving  of  your  imitation ;  but  I  know  not 
one  of  your  own  countrymen  who  does.  But 
though  I  think,  as  often  as  I  have  mentioned  this 
subject,  that  your  courtesy  and  benignity  have  in- 
duced you  to  comply  with  my  request,  I  am  un- 
willing that  those  qualities  should  deprive  you  of 
the  homage  of  a  more  polished  and  elaborate  en- 
treaty. For  since  your  singular  modesty  is  so  apt 
to  depreciate  your  own  performances ;  the  dignity 
of  the  subject,  and  my  respect  for  you,  will  not  suf- 
fer me  to  rate  them  below  their  worth.  And  it  is 
certainly  just  that  he  who  shows  the  greatest  facili- 
ty in  complying  with  a  request,  should  not  receive 
the  less  honor  on  account  of  his  compliance.  On 
this  occasion  I  have  employed  the  Latin  rather  than 
your  own  language,  that  I  might  in  Latin  confess 
my  imperfect  acquaintance  with  that  language 
which  I  wish  you  by  your  precepts  to  embellish  and 
adorn.  And  I  hoped  that  if  I  invoked  the  venera- 
ble Latin  mother,  hoary  with  years,  and  crowned 
with  the  respect  of  ages,  to  plead  the  cause  of  her 
daughter,  I  should  give  to  my  request  a  force 
and  authority  which  nothing  could  resist.  Adieu. 
FLORENCE,  Sept.  10,  1638. 


FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS.      411 

To  LEONARD  PHILA.RAS,  the  Athenian. 

I  HAVE  always  been  devotedly  attached  to  the 
literature  of  Greece,  and  particularly  to  that  of 
your  Athens  ;  and  have  never  ceased  to  cherish  the 
persuasion  that  that  city  would  one  day  make  me 
ample  recompense  for  the  warmth  of  my  regard. 
The  ancient  genius  of  your  renowned  country  has 
favored  the  completion  of  my  prophecy  in  present- 
ing me  with  your  friendship  and  esteem.  Though 
I  was  known  to  you  only  by  my  writings,  and  we 
were  removed  to  such  a  distance  from  each  other, 
you  most  courteously  addressed  me  by  letter ;  and 
when  you  unexpectedly  came  to  London,  and  saw 
me  who  could  no  longer  see,  my  affliction,  which 
causes  none  to  regard  me  with  greater  admiration, 
and  perhaps  many  even  with  feelings  of  contempt, 
excited  your  tenderest  sympathy  and  concern. 
You  would  not  suffer  me  to  abandon  the  hope  of 
recovering  my  sight ;  and  informed  me  that  you  had 
an  intimate  friend  at  Paris,  Doctor  Thevenot,  who 
was  particularly  celebrated  in  disorders  of  the  eyes, 
whom  you  would  consult  about  mine,  if  I  would 
enable  you  to  lay  before  him  the  causes  and  symp- 
toms of  the  complaint.  I  will  do  what  you  desire, 
lest  I  should  seem  to  reject  that  aid  which  perhaps 
may  be  offered  me  by  Heaven.  It  is  now,  I  think, 
about  ten  years  since  I  perceived  my  vision  to 
grow  weak  and  dull ;  and  at  the  same  time  I  was 
troubled  with  pain  in  my  kidneys  and  bowels,  ac- 


412      FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS. 

companied  with  flatulency.  In  the  morning,  if  I 
began  to  read,  as  was  my  custom,  my  eyes  instant- 
ly ached  intensely,  but  were  refreshed  after  a  little 
corporeal  exercise.  The  candle  which  I  looked 
at,  seemed  as  it  were  encircled  with  a  rainbow. 
Not  long  after  the  sight  in  the  left  part  of  the  left 
eye  (which  I  lost  some  years  before  the  other)  be- 
came quite  obscured  ;  and  prevented  me  from  dis- 
cerning any  object  on  that  side.  The  sight  in  my 
other  eye  has  now  been  gradually  and  sensibly 
vanishing  away  for  about  three  years ;  some 
months  before  it  had  entirely  perished,  though  I 
stood  motionless,  everything  which  I  looked  at, 
seemed  in  motion  to  and  fro.  A  stiff  cloudy  vapor 
seemed  to  have  settled  on  my  forehead  and  tem- 
ples, which  usually  occasions  a  sort  of  somnolent 
pressure  upon  my  eyes,  and  particularly  from  din- 
ner till  the  evening.  So  that  I  often  recollect 
what  is  said  of  the  poet  Phineas  in  the  Argonau- 
tics :  — 

"  A  stupor  deep  his  cloudy  temples  bound, 
And  when  he  walked  he  seemed  as  whirling  round, 
Or  in  a  feeble  trance  he  speechless  lay." 

I  ought  not  to  omit  that  while  I  had  any  sight 
left,  as  soon  as  I  lay  down  on  my  bed  and  turned 
on  either  side,  a  flood  of  light  used  to  gush  from 
my  closed  eyelids.  Then,  as  my  sight  became 
daily  more  impaired,  the  colors  became  more  faint, 
and  were  emitted  with  a  certain  inward  crackling 
sound ;  but  at  present,  every  species  of  illumina- 


FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS.      413 

tion  being,  as  it  were,  extinguished,  there  is  dif- 
fused around  me  nothing  but  darkness,  or  darkness 
mingled  and  streaked  with  an  ashy  brown.  Yet 
the  darkness  in  which  I  am  perpetually  immersed, 
seems  always,  both  by  night  and  day,  to  ap- 
proach nearer  to  white  than  black ;  and  when 
the  eye  is  rolling  in  its  socket,  it  admits  a  little 
particle  of  light,  as  through  a  chink.  And  though 
your  physician  may  kindle  a  small  ray  of  hope, 
yet  I  make  up  my  mind  to  the  malady  as  quite  in- 
curable ;  and  I  often  reflect,  that  as  the  wise  man 
admonishes,  days  of  darkness  are  destined  to  each 
of  us,  the  darkness  which  I  experience,  less  oppres- 
sive than  that  of  the  tomb,  is,  owing  to  the  singu- 
lar goodness  of  the  Deity,  passed  amid  the  pur- 
suits of  literature  and  the  cheering  salutations  of 
friendship.  But  if,  as  is  written,  "  man  shall  not 
live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  pro- 
ceedeth  from  the  mouth  of  God,"  why  may  not 
any  one  acquiesce  in  the  privation  of  his  sight,  when 
God  has  so  amply  furnished  his  mind  and  his  con- 
science with  eyes  ?  While  he  so  tenderly  pro- 
vides for  me,  while  he  so  graciously  leads  me  by 
the  hand,  and  conducts  me  on  the  way,  I  will, 
since  it  is  his  pleasure,  rather  rejoice  than  repine 
at  being  blind.  And,  my  dear  Philaras,  whatever 
may  be  the  event,  I  wish  you  adieu  with  no  less 
courage  and  composure  than  if  I  had  the  eyes  of  a 
lynx. 

WESTMINSTEK,  September  28,  1654. 


414      FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS. 

To  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  LORD  HENRY  DE  BRAS. 

I  SEE,  my  Lord,  that  you,  unlike  most  of  our 
modern  youth  who  pass  through  foreign  coun- 
tries, wisely  travel,  like  the  ancient  philosophers,  for 
the  sake  of  completing  your  juvenile  studies,  and 
of  picking  up  knowledge  wherever  it  may  be  found. 
Though  as  often  as  I  consider  the  excellence  of 
what  you  write,  you  appear  to  me  to  have  gone 
among  foreigners,  not  so  much  for  the  sake  of  pro- 
curing erudition  yourself,  as  of  imparting  it  to 
others,  and  rather  to  exchange  than  to  purchase  a 
stock  of  literature.  I  wish  it  were  as  easy  for  me 
in  every  way  to  promote  the  increase  of  your 
knowledge  and  the  improvement  of  your  intellect, 
as  it  is  pleasing  and  flattering  to  me  to  have  that 
assistance  requested  by  talents  and  genius  like 
yours.  I  have  never  attempted,  and  I  should 
never  dare  to  attempt,  to  solve  those  difficulties  as 
you  request,  which  seem  to  have  cast  a  cloud  over 
the  writers  of  history  for  so  many  ages.  Of 
Sallust  I  will  speak,  as  you  desire,  without  any 
hesitation  or  reserve.  I  prefer  him  to  any  of  the 
Latin  historians  ;  which  was  also  the  general  opin- 
ion of  the  ancients.  Your  favorite  Tacitus  deserves 
his  meed  of  praise  ;  but  his  highest  praise,  in  my 
opinion,  consists  in  his  having  imitated  Sallust  with 
all  his  might.  By  my  conversation  with  you  on 
this  subject  I  seem,  as  far  as  I  can, guess  from  your 
letter,  to  have  inspired  you  with  sentiments  very 


FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS.      415 

similar  to  my  own,  concerning  that  most  energetic 
and  animated  writer.  As  he  in  the  beginning  of 
his  Catilinarian  war  asserted  that  there  was  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  historical  composition,  because 
the  style  should  correspond  with  the  nature  of  the 
narrative,  you  ask  me  how  a  writer  of  history  may 
best  attain  that  excellence.  My  opinion  is  that  he 
who  would  describe  actions  and  events  in  a  way 
suited  to  their  dignity  and  importance,  ought  to 
write  with  a  mind  endued  with  a  spirit,  and  en- 
larged by  an  experience,  as  extensive  as  the  actors 
in  the  scene,  that  he  may  have  a  capacity  properly 
to  comprehend  and  to  estimate  the  most  momentous 
affairs,  and  to  relate  them,  when  comprehended, 
with  energy  and  distinctness,  with  purity  and  per- 
spicuity of  diction.  The  decorations  of  style  I  do 
not  greatly  heed :  for  I  require  an  historian,  and 
not  a  rhetorician.  I  do  not  want  frequent  inter- 
spersions  of  sentiment,  or  prolix  dissertations  on 
transactions,  which  interrupt  the  series  of  events, 
and  cause  the  historian  to  intrench  on  the  office  of 
the  politician,  who,  if,  in  explaining  counsels  and 
explaining  facts,  he  follows  truth  rather  than  his 
own  partialities  and  conjectures,  excites  the  disgust 
or  the  aversion  of  his  party.  I  will  add  a  remark  of 
Sallust,  and  which  was  one  of  the  excellences  he 
himself  commends  in  Cato,  that  he  should  be  able 
to  say  much  in  a  few  words  ;  a  perfection  which  I 
think  no  one  can  attain  without  the  most  discrim- 
inating judgment  and  a  peculiar  degree  of  modera- 


416       FROM  THE  FAMILIAR  LETTERS. 

tion.  There  are  many  in  whom  you  have  not  to 
regret  either  elegance  of  diction  or  copiousness  of 
narrative,  who  nave  yet  united  copiousness  with 
brevity.  And  among  these  Sallust  is,  in  my  opin- 
ion, the  chief  of  the  Latin  writers.  Such  are  the 
virtues  which  I  think  every  historian  ought  to  pos- 
sess who  would  proportion  his  style  to  the  facts 
which  he  records.  But  why  do  I  mention  this  to 
you,  when  such  is  your  genius  that  you  need  not 
my  advice,  and  when  such  is  your  proficiency,  that 
if  it  goes  on  increasing  you  will  soon  not  be  able 
to  consult  any  one  more  learned  than  yourself? 
To  the  increase  of  that  proficiency,  though  no 
exhortations  can  be  necessary  to  stimulate  your 
exertions,  yet,  that  I  may  not  seem  entirely  to 
frustrate  your  expectations,  I  will  beseech  you, 
with  all  my  affection,  all  my  authority,  and  all  my 
zeal,  to  let  nothing  relax  your  diligence,  or  chill 
the  ardor  of  your  pursuit.  Adieu  !  and  may  you 
ever  successfully  labor  in  the  path  of  wisdom  and 
of  virtue ! 

WESTMIKSTEH,  July  15, 1657. 


FROM  THE 


LETTERS    OF    STATE. 


To  the  most  Illustrious  and  Noble  Senators,  SCULTETS,  LAN- 
DAM,  and  Senators  of  the  Evangelic  Cantons  of  SWITZ- 
ERLAND, ZURICK,  BERN,  GLARIS,  BALE,  SCHAFF- 
HUSEN,  APPENZEL,  also  the  Confederates  of  the  same 
Religion  in  the  country  of  the  GRISONS,  of  GENEVA,  ST. 
GALL,  MALHAUSEN,  and  BIENNE,  our  dearest  friends. 

|  OUR  letters,  most  illustrious  lords  and 
dearest  confederates,  dated  December 
twenty-four,  full  of  civility,  good  will, 
and  singular  affection  towards  us  and 
our  republic,  and  what  ought  always  to  be  great- 
er and  more  sacred  to  us,  breathing  fraternal 
and  truly  Christian  charity,  we  have  received. 
And  in  the  first  place,  we  return  thanks  to 
Almighty  God,  who  has  raised  and  established 
both  you  and  so  many  noble  cities,  not  so  much 
intrenched  and  fortified  with  those  enclosures  of 
mountains,  as  with  your  innate  fortitude,  piety, 
most  prudent  and  just  administration  of  govern- 
ment, and  the  faith  of  mutual  confederacies,  to  be 
a  firm  and  inaccessible  shelter  for  all  the  truly 

18*  AA 


418      FROM  THE  LETTERS   OF  STATE. 

orthodox.  Now  then  that  you,  who  over  all 
Europe  were  the  first  of  mortals,  who,  after  del- 
uges of  barbarous  tyrants  from  the  north,  heaven 
prospering  your  valor,  recovered  your  liberty,  and, 
being  obtained,  for  so  many  years  have  preserved 
it  untainted,  with  no  less  prudence  and  modera- 
tion ;  that  you  should  have  such  noble  sentiments 
of  our  liberty  recovered ;  that  you,  such  sincere 
worshippers  of  the  Gospel,  should  be  so  constantly 
persuaded  of  our  love  and  affection  for  the  ortho- 
dox faith,  is  that  which  is  most  acceptable  and 
welcome  to  us.  But  as  to  your  exhorting  us  to 
peace,  with  a  pious  and  affectionate  intent,  as  we 
are  fully  assured,  certainly  such  an  admonition 
ought  to  be  of  great  weight  with  us,  as  well  in 
respect  of  the  thing  itself  which  you  persuade,  and 
which  of  all  things  is  chiefly  to  be  desired,  as  also 
for  the  great  authority,  which  is  to  be  allowed  your 
lordships  above  others  in  this  particular,  who  in 
the  midst  of  loud  tumultuous  wars  on  every  side 
enjoy  the  sweets  of  peace  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  have  approved  yourselves  the  best  example  to 
all  others  of  embracing  and  improving  peace ;  and 
lastly,  for  that  you  persuade  us  to  the  very  thing 
which  we  ourselves  of  our  own  accords,  and  that 
more  than  once,  consulting  as  well  our  own  as  the 
interest  of  the  whole  evangelical  communion,  have 
begged  by  ambassadors,  and  other  public  ministers, 
namely,  friendship  and  a  most  strict  league  with 
the  United  Provinces.  But  how  they  treated  our 


FROM  THE  LETTERS   OF  STATE.      419 

ambassadors  sent  to  them  to  negotiate,  not  a  bare 
peace,  but  a  brotherly  amity  and  most  strict  league ; 
what  provocations  to  war  they  afterwards  gave  us ; 
how  they  fell  upon  us  in  our  own  roads,  in  the 
midst  of  their  ambassadors'  negotiations  for  peace 
and  allegiance,  little  dreaming  any  such  violence  ; 
you  will  abundantly  understand  by  our  declaration 
set  forth  upon  this  subject,  and  sent  you  together 
with  these  our  letters.  But  as  for  our  parts,  we 
are  wholly  intent  upon  this,  by  God's  assistance, 
though  prosperous  hitherto,  so  to  carry  ourselves, 
that  we  may  neither  attribute  anything  to  our  own 
strength  or  forces,  but  all  things  to  God  alone,  nor 
be  insolently  puffed  up  with  our  success ;  and  we 
still  retain  the  same  ready  inclinations  to  embrace 
all  occasions  of  making  a  just  and  honest  peace. 
In  the  mean  time  yourselves,  illustrious  and  most 
excellent  lords,  in  whom  this  noble  and  pious 
sedulity,  out  of  mere  evangelical  affection,  exerts 
itself  to  reconcile  and  pacify  contending  brethren, 
as  ye  are  worthy  of  all  applause  among  men,  so 
doubtless  will  ye  obtain  the  celestial  reward  of 
peacemakers  with  God ;  to  whose  supreme  benig- 
nity and  favor  we  heartily  recommend  in  our 
prayers  both  you  and  yours,  no  less  ready  to  make 
returns  of  all  good  offices,  both  of  friends  and 
brethren,  if  in  anything  we  may  be  serviceable  to 
your  lordships. 

Sealed  with  the  Parliament  seal,  and  subscribed, 
Speaker,  &c. 

WESTMINSTER,  October,  1653. 


420      FROM  THE  LETTERS   OF  STATE. 

OLIVER,  the  Protector  §'c.,  to  the  most  Serene  Prince,  IMMAN- 
UEL,  Duke  of  Savoy,  Prince  ofPiemont,  Greeting:  — 

MOST  SERENE  PRINCE  :  Letters  have  been 
sent  us  from  Geneva,  as  also  from  the  Dau- 
phinate,  and  many  other  places  bordering  upon 
your  territories,  wherein  we  are  given  to  under- 
stand, that  such  of  your  royal  highness's  subjects 
as  profess  the  reformed  religion,  are  commanded 
by  your  edict,  and  by  your  authority,  within  three 
days  after  the  promulgation  of  your  edict,  to  de- 
part their  native  seats  and  habitations,  upon  pain 
of  capital  punishment,  and  forfeiture  .of  all  their 
fortunes  and  estates,  unless  they  will  give  security 
to  relinquish  their  religion  within  twenty  days,  and 
embrace  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  And  that  when 
they  applied  themselves  to  your  royal  highness  in  a 
most  suppliant  manner,  imploring  a  revocation  of 
the  said  edict,  and  that,  being  received  into  pristine 
favor,  they  might  be  restored  to  the  liberty  granted 
them  by  your  predecessors,  a  part  of  your  army  fell 
upon  them,  most  cruelly  slew  several,  put  others 
in  chains,  and  compelled  the  rest  to  fly  into  desert 
places,  and  to  the  mountains  covered  with  snow, 
where  some  hundreds  of  families  are  reduced  to 
such  distress,  that  it  is  greatly  to  be  feared  they 
will  in  a  short  time  all  miserably  perish  through 
cold  and  hunger.  These  things,  when  they  were 
related  to  us,  we  could  not  choose  but  be  touched 
with  extreme  grief,  and  compassion  for  the  suffer- 
ings and  calamities  of  this  afflicted  people.  Now 


FROM  THE  LETTERS  OF  STATE.      421 

in  regard  we  must  acknowledge  ourselves  linked 
together,  not  only  by  the  same  tie  of  humanity,  but 
by  joint  communion  of  the  same  religion,  we 
thought  it  impossible  for  us  to  satisfy  our  duty  to 
God,  to  brotherly  charity,  or  our  profession  of  the 
same  religion,  if  we  should  only  be  affected  with  a 
bare  sorrow  for  the  misery  and  calamity  of  our 
brethren,  and  not  contribute  all  our  endeavors  to 
relieve  and  succor  them  in  then*  unexpected  adver- 
sity, as  much  as  in  us  lies.  Therefore  in  a  greater 
measure  we  most  earnestly  beseech  and  conjure 
your  royal  highness,  that  you  would  call  back  to 
your  thoughts  the  moderation  of  your  most  serene 
predecessors,  and  the  liberty  by  them  granted  and 
confirmed  from  time  to  time  to  their  subjects  the 
Vaudois.  In  granting  and  confirming  which,  as 
they  did  that  which  without  all  question  was  most 
grateful  to  God,  who  has  been  pleased  to  reserve 
the  jurisdiction  and  power  over  the  conscience  to 
himself  alone,  so  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  they 
had  a  due  consideration  of  their  subjects  also, 
whom  they  found  stout  and  most  faithful  in  war, 
and  always  obedient  in  peace.  And  as  your  royal 
serenity  hi  other  things  most  laudably  follows  the 
footsteps  of  your  immortal  ancestors,  so  we  again 
and  again  beseech  your  royal  highness  not  to 
swerve  from  the  path  wherein  they  trod  in  this 
particular ;  but  that  you  would  vouchsafe  to  abro- 
gate both  this  edict,  and  whatsoever  else  may  be  de- 
creed to  the  disturbance  of  your  subjects  upon  the 


422      FROM  THE  LETTERS   OF  STATE. 

account  of  the  reformed  religion  ;  that  you  would 
ratify  to  them  their  conceded  privileges  and  pris- 
tine liberty,  and  command  their  losses  to  be  re- 
paired, and  that  an  end  be  put  to  their  oppressions. 
Which  if  your  royal  highness  shall  be  pleased  to 
see  performed,  you  will  do  a  thing  most  acceptable 
to  God,  revive  and  comfort  the  miserable  in  dire 
calamity,  and  most  highly  oblige  all  your  neigh- 
bors that  profess  the  reformed  religion,  but  more 
especially  ourselves,  who  shall  be  bound  to  look 
upon  your  clemency  and  benignity  toward  your 
subjects  as  the  fruit  of  our  earnest  solicitation. 
Which  will  both  engage  us  to  a  reciprocal  return 
to  all  good  offices,  and  lay  the  solid  foundations 
not  only  of  establishing,  but  increasing,  alliance 
and  friendship  between  this  republic  and  your  do- 
minions. Nor  do  we  less  promise  this  to  ourselves 
from  your  justice  and  moderation  ;  to  which  we 
beseech  Almighty  God  to  incline  your  mind  and 
thoughts.  And  so  we  cordially  implore  just  Heav- 
en to  bestow  upon  your  highness  and  your  people 
the  blessings  of  peace  and  truth,  and  prosperous 
success  in  all  your  affairs. 
WHITEHALL,  May  — ,  1655. 

OLIVER,  PROTECTOR,  $rc.,  to  the  High  and  Mighty  Lords, 
the  States  of  the  UNITED  PROVINCES. 

WE  make  no  question  but  that  you  have 
already  been  informed  by  the  Duke  of 
Savoy's  edict,  set  forth  against  his  subjects  inhabit- 


FROM  THE  LETTERS   OF  STATE.      423 

ing  the  valleys  at  the  feet  of  the  Alps,  ancient  pro- 
fessors of  the  orthodox  faith  ;  by  which  edict  they 
are  commanded  to  abandon  their  native  habitations, 
stripped  of  all  their  fortunes,  unless  within  twenty 
days  they  embrace  the  Roman  faith  ;  and  with 
what  cruelty  the  authority  of  this  edict  has  raged 
against  a  needy  and  harmless  people,  many  being 
slain  by  the  soldiers,  the  rest  plundered  and  driv- 
en from  their  houses,  together  with  their  wives 
and  children,  to  combat  cold  and  hunger  among 
desert  mountains,  and  perpetual  snow.  These 
things  with  what  commotion  of  mind  you  heard 
related,  what  a  fellow-feeling  of  the  calamities  of 
brethren  pierced  your  breasts,  we  readily  conjec- 
tured from  the  depth  of  our  own  sorrow,  which 
certainly  is  most  heavy  and  afflictive.  For  being 
engaged  together  by  the  same  tie  of  religion,  no 
wonder  we  should  be  so  deeply  moved  with  the 
same  affections  upon  the  dreadful  and  undeserved 
sufferings  of  our  brethren.  Besides,  that  your 
conspicuous  piety  and  charity  toward  the  ortho- 
dox, wherever  overborne  and  oppressed,  has  been 
frequently  experienced  in  the  most  urging  straits 
and  calamities  of  the  churches.  For  my  own 
part,  unless  my  thoughts  deceive  me,  there  is 
nothing  wherein  I  should  desire  more  willingly 
to  be  overcome,  than  in  good-will  and  charity 
toward  brethren  of  the  same  religion,  afflicted  and 
wronged  in  their  quiet  enjoyments  ;  as  being  one 
that  would  be  accounted  always  ready  to  prefer 


424      FROM  THE  LETTERS   OF  STATE. 

the  peace  and  safety  of  the  churches  before  my 
particular  interests.  So  far,  therefore,  as  hitherto 
lay  in  our  power,  we  have  written  to  the  Duke  of 
Savoy,  even  almost  to  supplication,  beseeching 
him  that  he  would  admit  into  his  breast  more 
placid  thoughts  and  kinder  effects  of  his  favor 
towards  his  most  innocent  subjects  and  suppliants ; 
that  he  would  restore  the  miserable  to  their  habi- 
tations and  estates,  and  grant  them  their  pristine 
freedom  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion.  More- 
over, we  wrote  to  the  chiefest  princes  and  magis- 
trates of  the  Protestants,  whom  we  thought  most 
nearly  concerned  in  these  matters,  that  they  would 
lend  us  their  assistance  to  entreat  and  pacify  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  in  their  behalf.  And  we  make  no 
doubt  now  but  you  have  done  the  same,  and  per- 
haps much  more.  For  this  so  dangerous  a  prece- 
dent, and  lately  removed  severity  of  utmost  cruel- 
ty toward  the  reformed,  if  the  authors  of  it  meet 
with  prosperous  success,  to  what  apparent  dangers 
it  reduces  our  religion,  we  need  not  admonish 
your  prudence.  On  the  other  side,  if  the  Duke 
shall  once  but  permit  himself  to  be  atoned  and 
won  by  our  united  applications,  not  only  our  af- 
flicted brethren,  but  we  ourselves  shall  reap  the 
noble  and  abounding  harvest  and  reward  of  this  la- 
borious undertaking.  But  if  he  still  persist  in  the 
same  obstinate  resolutions  of  reducing  to  utmost 
extremity  those  people,  (among  whom  our  religion 
was  either  disseminated  by  the  first  doctors  of  the 


FROM  THE  LETTERS  OF  STATE.      425 

Gospel,  and  preserved  from  the  defilement  of  su- 
perstition, or  else  restored  to  its  pristine  sincerity 
long  before  other  nations  obtained  that  felicity,) 
and  determines  their  utter  extirpation  and  destruc- 
tion ;  we  are  ready  to  take  such  other  course  and 
councils  with  yourselves,  in  common  with  the  rest 
of  our  reformed  friends  and  confederates,  as  may 
be  most  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  just  and 
good  men,  upon  the  brink  of  inevitable  ruin ;  and 
to  make  the  Duke  himself  sensible  that  we  can  no 
longer  neglect  the  heavy  oppressions  and  calamities 
of  our  orthodox  brethren.  Farewell. 

OLIVER,  Protector  of  the  Commonwealth  of  ENGLAND,  $rc.,  to 
the  most  High  and  Mighty  Lords,  the  States  of  the  UNITED 
PROVINCES. 

MOST  High  and  Mighty  Lords,  our  dearest 
Friends  and  Confederates  :  —  We  make 
no  doubt  but  that  all  men  will  bear  us  this  tes- 
timony, that  no  considerations,  in  contracting 
foreign  alliances,  ever  swayed  us  beyond  those 
of  defending  the  truth  of  religion,  or  that  we  ac- 
counted anything  more  sacred,  than  to  unite  the 
minds  of  all  the  friends  and  protectors  of  the  Prot- 
estants, and  of  all  others  who  at  least  were  not 
their  enemies.  Whence  it  comes  to  pass,  that  we 
are  touched  with  so  much  the  more  grief  of  mind, 
to  hear  that  the  Protestant  princes  and  cities, 
whom  it  so  much  behoves  to  live  in  friendship  and 
concord  together,  should  begin  to  be  so  jealous  of 


426      FROM  THE  LETTERS   OF  STATE. 

each  other,  and  so  ill  disposed  to  mutual  affection ; 
more  especially  that  your  lordships  and  the  King 
of  Sweden,  than  whom  the  orthodox  faith  has  not 
more  magnanimous  and  courageous  defenders,  nor 
our  republic  confederates  more  strictly  conjoined 
in  interests,  should  seem  to  remit  of  your  confi- 
dence in  each  other ;  or  rather,  that  there  should 
appear  some  too  apparent  signs  of  tottering  friend- 
ship and  growing  discord  between  ye.  What  the 
causes  are,  and  what  progress  this  alienation  of 
your  affection  has  made,  we  protest  ourselves  to  be 
altogether  ignorant.  However,  we  cannot  but  con- 
ceive an  extraordinary  trouble  of  mind  for  these 
beginnings  of  the  least  dissension  arisen  among 
brethren,  which  infallibly  must  greatly  endanger 
the  Protestant  interests.  Which  if  they  should 
gather  strength,  how  prejudicial  it  would  prove  to 
Protestant  churches,  what  an  occasion  of  triumph 
it  would  afford  our  enemies,  and  more  especially  the 
Spaniards,  cannot  be  unknown  to  your  prudence, 
and  most  industrious  experience  of  affairs.  As  for 
the  Spaniards,  it  has  already  so  enlivened  their  con- 
fidence, and  raised  their  courage,  that  they  made 
no  scruple,  by  their  ambassador  residing  in  your 
territories,  boldly  to  obtrude  their  counsels  upon 
your  lordships,  and  that  in  reference  to  the  highest 
concerns  of  your  republic  ;  presuming,  partly  with 
threats  of  renewing  the  war,  to  terrify,  and  partly 
with  a  false  prospect  of  advantage,  to  solicit  your 
lordships  to  forsake  your  ancient  and  most  faithful 


FROM  THE  LETTERS  OF  STATE.      427 

friends,  the  English,  French,  and  Danes,  and  enter 
into  a  strict  confederacy  with  your  old  enemy,  and 
once  your  domineering  tyrant,  now  seemingly 
atoned  ;  but,  what  is  most  to  be  feared,  only  at 
present  treacherously  fawning  to  advance  his  own 
designs.  Certainly  he  who  of  an  inveterate  enemy 
lays  hold  of  so  slight  an  occasion  of  a  sudden  to 
become  your  counsellor,  what  is  it  that  he  would 
not  take  upon  him  ?  Where  would  his  insolency 
stop,  if  once  he  could  but  see  with  his  eyes  what 
now  he  only  ruminates  and  labors  in  his  thoughts  ; 
that  is  to  say,  division  and  a  civil  war  among  the 
Protestants?  We  are  not  ignorant  that  your  lord- 
ships, out  of  your  deep  wisdom,  frequently  revolve 
in  your  minds  what  the  posture  of  all  Europe  is, 
and  what  more  especially  the  condition  of  the 
Protestants :  that  the  Cantons  of  Switzerland,  ad- 
hering to  the  orthodox  faith,  are  in  daily  expecta- 
tion of  new  troubles  to  be  raised  by  their  country- 
men embracing  the  Popish  ceremonies ;  scarcely 
recovered  from  that  war,  which  for  the  sake  of 
religion  was  kindled  and  blown  up  by  the  Span- 
iards, who  supplied  their  enemies  both  with  com- 
manders and  money :  that  the  counsels  of  the 
Spaniards  are  still  contriving  to  continue  the 
slaughter  and  destruction  of  the  Piedmontois, 
which  was  cruelly  put  in  execution  the  last  year : 
that  the  Protestants  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
emperor  are  most  grievously  harassed,  having 
much  ado  to  keep  possession  of  their  native  homes : 


428      FROM  THE  LETTERS  OF  STATE. 

that  the  King  of  Sweden,  whom  God,  as  we  hope, 
has  raised  up  to  be  a  most  stout  defender  of  the 
orthodox  faith,  is  at  present  waging,  with  all  the 
force  of  his  kingdom,  a  doubtful  and  bloody  war 
with  the  most  potent  enemies  of  the  reformed  re- 
ligion :  that  your  own  provinces  are  threatened 
with  hostile  confederacies  of  the  princes  your 
neighbors,  headed  by  the  Spaniards ;  and  lastly, 
that  we  ourselves  are  busied  in  a  war  proclaimed 
against  the  King  of  Spain.  In  this  posture  of 
affairs,  if  any  contest  should  happen  between  your 
lordships  and  the  King  of  Sweden,  how  miserable 
would  be  the  condition  of  all  the  reformed 
churches  over  all  Europe,  exposed  to  the  cruelty 
and  fury  of  unsanctified  enemies !  These  cares 
not  slightly  seize  us ;  and  we  hope  your  sentiments 
to  be  the  same ;  and  that  out  of  your  continued 
zeal  for  the  common  cause  of  the  Protestants,  and 
to  the  end  the  present  peace  between  brethren 
professing  the  same  faith,  the  same  hope  of  eter- 
nity, may  be  preserved  inviolable,  your  lordships 
will  accommodate  your  counsels  to  those  considera- 
tions, which  are  to  be  preferred  before  all  others ; 
and  that  you  will  leave  nothing  neglected  that 
may  conduce  to  the  establishing  tranquillity  and 
union  between  your  lordships  and  the  King  of 
Sweden.  Wherein,  if  we  can  any  way  be  useful, 
as  far  as  our  authority,  and  the  favor  you  bear  us 
will  sway  with  your  lordships,  we  freely  offer  our 
utmost  assistance,  prepared  in  like  manner  to  be 


FROM  THE  LETTERS   OF  STATE.      429 

no  less  serviceable  to  the  King  of  Sweden,  to 
whom  we  design  a  speedy  embassy,  to  the  end  we 
may  declare  our  sentiments  at  large  concerning 
these  matters.  We  hope,  moreover,  that  God  will 
bend  your  minds  on  both  sides  to  moderate  coun- 
sels, and  so  restrain  your  animosities,  that  no 
provocation  may  be  given,  either  by  the  one  or  the 
other,  to  fester  your  differences  to  extremity ;  but 
that,  on  the  other  side,  both  parties  will  remove 
whatever  may  give  offence  or  occasion  of  jealousy 
to  the  other.  Which,  if  you  shall  vouchsafe  to  do, 
you  will  disappoint  your  enemies,  prove  the  con- 
solation of  your  friends,  and  in  the  best  manner 
provide  for  the  welfare  of  your  republic.  And 
this  we  beseech  you  to  be  fully  convinced  of,  that 
we  shall  use  our  utmost  care  to  make  appear,  upon 
all  occasions,  our  extraordinary  affection  and  good 
will  to  the  states  of  the  United  Provinces.  And 
so  we  most  earnestly  implore  the  Almighty  God  to 
perpetuate  his  blessings  of  peace,  wealth,  and  lib- 
erty, upon  your  republic :  but  above  all  things  to 
preserve  it  always  flourishing  in  the  love  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  the  true  worship  of  his  name. 

Your  high  and  mightinesses'  most  affectionate, 

OLIVER,  Protector  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  England,  £c. 

From  our  Palace  at  WESTMINSTER,  Aug.  — ,  1656. 


FROM  THE 

TREATISE  ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 


JOHN    MILTON, 
TO  ALL  THE  CHURCHES  OF  CHRIST, 

AND 

TO  ALL  WHO  PEOFESS  THE  CHRISTIAN  FAITH  THROUGHOUT 
THE  WORLD, 

PEACE,  AND  THE  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  TRUTH,  AND 

ETERNAL  SALVATION  IN  GOD  THE  FATHER, 

AND  IN  OUR  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST. 

INGE  the  commencement  of  the  last 
century,  when  religion  began  to  be 
restored  from  the  corruptions  of  more 
than  thirteen  hundred  years  to  some- 
thing of  its  original  purity,  many  treatises  of  the- 
ology have  been  published,  conducted  according 
to  sounder  principles,  wherein  the  chief  heads  of 
Christian  doctrine  are  set  forth,  sometimes  briefly, 
sometimes  in  a  more  enlarged  and  methodical 
order.  I  think  myself  obliged,  therefore,  to  de- 
clare in  the  first  instance  why,  if  any  works  have 
already  appeared  as  perfect  as  the  nature  of  the 
subject  will  admit,  I  have  not  remained  contented 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  431 

with  them, — or,  if  all  my  predecessors  have  treated 
it  unsuccessfully,  why  their  failure  has  not  deterred 
me  from  attempting  an  undertaking  of  a  similar 
kind. 

If  I  were  to  say  that  I  had  devoted  myself  to 
the  study  of  the  Christian  religion  because  noth- 
ing else  can  so  effectually  rescue  the  lives  and 
minds  of  men  from  those  two  detestable  curses, 
slavery  and  superstition,  I  should  seem  to  have 
acted  rather  from  a  regard  to  my  highest  earthly 
comforts,  than  from  a  religious  motive. 

But  since  it  is  only  to  the  individual  faith  of 
each  that  the  Deity  has  opened  the  way  of  eter- 
nal salvation,  and  as  he  requires  that  he  who 
would  be  saved  should  have  a  personal  belief  of 
his  own,  I  resolved  not  to  repose  on  the  faith 
or  judgment  of  others  in  matters  relating  to 
God;  but  on  the  one  hand,  having  taken  the 
grounds  of  my  faith  from  divine  revelation  alone, 
and  on  the  other,  having  neglected  nothing  which 
depended  on  my  own  industry,  I  thought  fit  to 
scrutinize  and  ascertain  for  myself  the  several 
points  of  my  religious  belief,  by  the  most  careful 
perusal  and  meditation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
themselves. 

If  therefore  I  mention  what  has  proved  bene- 
ficial in  my  own  practice,  it  is  in  the  hope  that 
others,  who  have  a  similar  wish  of  improving 
themselves,  may  be  thereby  invited  to  pursue  the 
same  method.  I  entered  upon  an  assiduous  course 


432  FROM  THE  TREATISE 

of  study  in  my  youth,  beginning  with  the  books  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament  in  their  original 
languages,  and  going  diligently  through  a  few 
of  the  shorter  systems  of  divines,  in  imitation  of 
whom  I  was  in  the  habit  of  classing  under  certain 
heads  whatever  passages  of  Scripture  occurred  for 
extraction,  to  be  made  use  of  hereafter  as  occasion 
might  require.  At  length  I  resorted  with  in- 
creased confidence  to  some  of  the  more  copious 
theological  treatises,  and  to  the  examination  of  the 
arguments  advanced  by  the  conflicting  parties  re- 
specting certain  disputed  points  of  faith.  But,  to 
speak  the  truth  with  freedom  as  well  as  candor,  I 
was  concerned  to  discover  in  many  instances  ad- 
verse reasonings  either  evaded  by  wretched  shifts, 
or  attempted  to  be  refuted,  rather  speciously  than 
with  solidity,  by  an  affected  display  of  formal 
sophisms,  or  by  a  constant  recourse  to  the  quib- 
bles of  the  grammarians ;  while  what  was  most  per- 
tinaciously espoused  as  the  true  doctrine,  seemed 
often  defended,  with  more  vehemence  than 
strength  of  argument,  by  misconstructions  of 
Scripture,  or  by  the  hasty  deduction  of  errone- 
ous inferences.  Owing  to  these  causes,  the  truth 
was  sometimes  as  strenuously  opposed  as  if  it  had 
been  an  error  or  a  heresy,  —  while  errors  and 
heresies  were  substituted  for  the  truth,  and  val- 
ued rather  from  deference  to  custom  and  the 
spirit  of  party  than  from  the  authority  of  Scrip- 
ture. 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  433 

According  to  my  judgment,  therefore,  neither 
my  creed  nor  my  hope  of  salvation  could  be  safely 
trusted  to  such  guides ;  and  yet  it  appeared  highly 
requisite  to  possess  some  methodical  tractate  of 
Christian  doctrine,  or  at  least  to  attempt  such  a 
disquisition  as  might  be  useful  in  establishing  my 
faith  or  assisting  my  memory.  I  deemed  it  there- 
fore safest  and  most  advisable  to  compile  for  my- 
self, by  my  own  labor  and  study,  some  original 
treatise  which  should  be  always  at  hand,  derived 
solely  from  the  word  of  God  itself,  and  executed 
with  all  possible  fidelity,  seeing  that  I  could  have 
no  wish  to  practise  any  imposition  on  myself  in 
such  a  matter. 

After  a  diligent  perseverance  in  this  plan  for 
several  years,  I  perceived  that  the  strongholds 
of  the  reformed  religion  were  sufficiently  fortified, 
as  far  as  it  was  in  danger  from  the  Papists,  —  but 
neglected  many  other  quarters  ;  neither  compe- 
tently strengthened  with  works  of  defence,  nor 
adequately  provided  with  champions.  It  was  also 
evident  to  me,  that  in  religion  as  in  other  things, 
the  offers  of  God  were  all  directed,  not  to  an 
indolent  credulity,  but  to  constant  diligence, 
and  to  an  unwearied  search  after  truth ;  and  that 
more  than  I  was  aware  of  still  remained,  which 
required  to  be  more  rigidly  examined  by  the  rule 
of  Scripture,  and  reformed  after  a  more  accurate 
model.  I  so  far  satisfied  myself  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  this  plan  as  at  length  to  trust  that  I  had 

19  BB 


434  FROM  THE  TREATISE 

discovered,  with  regard  to  religion,  what  was 
matter  of  belief,  and  what  only  matter  of  opinion. 
It  was  also  a  great  solace  to  me  to  have  compiled, 
by  God's  assistance,  a  precious  aid  for  my  faith,  — 
or  rather  to  have  laid  up  for  myself  a  treasure 
which  would  be  a  provision  for  my  future  life, 
and  would  remove  from  my  mind  all  grounds 
for  hesitation,  as  often  as  it  behoved  me  to  render 
an  account  of  the  principles  of  my  belief. 

If  I  communicate  the  result  of  my  inquiries  to 
the  world  at  large ;  if,  as  God  is  my  witness,  it  be 
with  a  friendly  and  benignant  feeling  towards 
mankind,  that  I  readily  give  as  wide  a  circulation 
as  possible  to  what  I  esteem  my  best  and  richest 
possession,  I  hope  to  meet  with  a  candid  reception 
from  all  parties,  and  that  none  at  least  will  take 
'Unjust  offence,  even  though  many  things  should 
>be  brought  to  light  which  will  at  once  be  seen  to 
^differ  from  certain  received  opinions.  I  earnestly 
beseech  all  lovers  of  truth,  not  to  cry  out  that  the 
Church  is  thrown  into  confusion  by  that  freedom 
of  discussion  and  inquiry  which  is  granted  to 
the  schools,  and  ought  certainly  to  be  refused  to 
no  believer,  since  we  are  ordered  "  to  prove  all 
things,"  and  since  the  daily  progress  of  the  light 
of  truth  is  productive  far  less  of  disturbance  to  the 
Church,  than  of  illumination  and  edification.  Nor 
do  I  see  how  the  Church  can  be  more  disturbed 
by  the  investigation  of  truth,  than  were  the  Gen- 
tiles by  the  first  promulgation  of  the  Gospel ;  since 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  435 

so  far  from  recommending  or  imposing  anything 
on  my  own  authority,  it  is  my  particular  advice 
that  every  one  should  suspend  his  opinion  on 
whatever  points  he  may  not  feel  himself  fully 
satisfied,  till  the  evidence  of  Scripture  prevail, 
and  persuade  his  reason  into  assent  and  faith. 
Concealment  is  not  my  object ;  it  is  to  the  learned 
that  I  address  myself,  or  if  it  be  thought  that  the 
learned  are  not  the  best  umpires  and  judges  of  such 
things,  I  should  at  least  wish  to  submit  my  opin- 
ions to  men  of  a  mature  and  manly  understanding, 
possessing  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  Gospel ;  on  whose  judgments  I  should  rely 
with  far  more  confidence,  than  on  those  of  novices 
in  these  matters.  And  whereas  the  greater  part 
of  those  who  have  written  most  largely  on  these 
subjects  have  been  wont  to  fill  whole  pages  with 
explanations  of  their  own  opinions,  thrusting  into 
the  margin  the  texts  in  support  of  their  doctrine 
with  a  summary  reference  to  the  chapter  and 
verse,  I  -have  chosen,  on  the  contrary,  to  fill  my 
pages,  even  to  redundance,  with  quotations  from 
Scripture,  that  so  as  little  space  as  possible  might 
be  left  for  my  own  words,  even  when  they  arise 
from  the  context  of  revelation  itself. 

It  has  also  been  my  object  to  make  it  appear 
from  the  opinions  I  shall  be  found  to  have  ad- 
vanced, whether  new  or  old,  of  how  much  conse- 
quence to  the  Christian  religion  is  the  liberty  not 
only  of  winnowing  and  sifting  every  doctrine,  but 


436  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

also  of  thinking  and  even  writing  respecting  it, 
according  to  our  individual  faith  and  persuasion  ; 
an  inference  which  will  be  stronger  in  proportion 
to  the  weight  and  importance  of  those  opinions,  or 
rather  in  proportion  to  the  authority  of  Scripture, 
on  the  abundant  testimony  of  which  they  rest. 
Without  this  liberty  there  is  neither  religion  nor 
Gospel,  —  force  alone  prevails,  —  by  which  it  is 
disgraceful  for  the  Christian  religion  to  be  sup- 
ported. Without  this  liberty  we  are  still  en- 
slaved, not  indeed,  as  formerly,  under  the  divine 
law,  but,  what  is  worst  of  all,  under  the  law  of 
man,  or,  to  speak  more  truly,  under  a  barbarous 
tyranny.  But  I  do  not  expect  from  candid  and 
judicious  readers  a  conduct  so  unworthy  of  them, 
—  that,  like  certain  unjust  and  foolish  men,  they 
should  stamp  with  the  invidious  name  of  heretic 
or  heresy  whatever  appears  to  them  to  differ  from 
the  received  opinions,  without  trying  the  doctrine 
by  a  comparison  with  Scripture  testimonies.  Ac- 
cording to  their  notions,  to  have  branded  any  one 
at  random  with  this  opprobrious  mark,  is  to  have 
refuted  him  without  any  trouble,  by  a  single  word. 
By  the  simple  imputation  of  the  name  of  heretic, 
they  think  that  they  have  despatched  their  man  at 
one  blow.  To  men  of  this  kind  I  answer,  that  in 
the  time  of  the  apostles,  ere  the  New  Testament 
was  written,  whenever  the  charge  of  heresy  was 
applied  as  a  term  of  reproach,  that  alone  was  con- 
sidered as  heresy  which  was  at  variance  with  their 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  437 

doctrine  orally  delivered,  — and  that  those  only 
were  looked  upon  as  heretics,  who,  according  to 
Rom.  %xvi.  17,  18,  "  caused  divisions  and  offences 
contrary  to  the  doctrine  "  of  the  apostles.  .  .  . 
"  serving  not  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  their 

o  * 

own  belly."  By  parity  of  reasoning  therefore, 
since  the  compilation  of  the  New  Testament,  I 
maintain  that  nothing  but  what  is  in  contradiction 
to  it  can  properly  be  called  heresy. 

For  my  own  part,  I  adhere  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures alone,  —  I  follow  no  other  heresy  or  sect.  I 
had  not  even  read  any  of  the  works  of  heretics,  so 
called,  when  the  mistakes  of  those  who  are  reck- 
oned for  orthodox,  and  their  incautious  handling  of 
Scripture,  first  taught  me  to  agree  with  their  op- 
ponents whenever  those  opponents  agreed  with 
Scripture.  If  this  be  heresy,  I  confess  with  St. 
Paul,  Acts  xxiv.  14,  "  that  after  the  way  which 
they  call  heresy,  so  worship  I  the  God  of  my 
fathers,  believing  all  things  which  are  written  in 
the  law  arid  the  prophets,"  —  to  which  I  add, 
whatever  is  written  in  the  New  Testament. 
Any  other  judges  or  paramount  interpreters  of 
the  Christian  belief,  together  with  all  implicit 
faith,  as  it  is  called,  I,  in  common  with  the  whole 
Protestant  Church,  refuse  to  recognize. 

For  the  rest,  brethren,  cultivate  truth  with 
brotherly  love.  Judge  of  my  present  undertak- 
ing according  to  the  admonishing  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  —  and  neither  adopt  my  sentiments  nor  re- 


438  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

ject  them,  unless  every  doubt  has  been  removed 
from  your  belief  by  the  clear  testimony  of  revela- 
tion. Finally,  live  in  the  faith  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Farewell. 


WE  must  conclude,  therefore,  that  God  decreed 
nothing  absolutely,  which  he  left  in  the  power  of 
free  agents,  —  a  doctrine  which  is  shown  by  the 
whole  canon  of  Scripture.  Gen.  xix.  17,  21, 
"  escape  to  the  mountain,  lest  thou  be  consumed. 
....  see,  I  have  accepted  thee  concerning  this 
thing  also,  that  I  will  not  overthrow  this  city  for 
the  which  thou  hast  spoken."  Exod.  iii.  8,  17, 

"I    am  come  down  to  deliver  them and 

to  bring  them  up  unto  a  good  land,"  —  though 
these  very  individuals  actually  perished  in  the 
wilderness.  God  also  had  determined  to  deliver 
his  people  by  the  hand  of  Moses,  whom  he  would 
nevertheless  have  put  to  death,  Exod.  iv.  24,  if  he 
had  not  immediately  circumcised  his  son.  1  Sam. 
ii.  30,  "I  said  indeed  .  .  .  but  now  Jehovah 
saith,  be  it  far  from  me;"  —  and  the  reason  for 
this  change  is  added,  —  "  for,  them  that  honor  me 
I  will  honor."  xiii.  13,  14,  "  now  would  Jehovah 
have  established  thy  kingdom  ....  but  now  thy 
kingdom  shall  not  continue."  Again,  God  had 
said,  2  Kings  xx.  1,  that  Hezekiah  should  die 
immediately,  which  event,  however,  did  not  hap- 
pen, and  therefore  could  not  have  been  decreed 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  439 

without  reservation.  The  death  of  Josiah  was  not 
decreed  peremptorily,  but  he  would  not  hearken 
to  the  voice  of  Necho  when  he  warned  him  ac- 
cording; to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  not  to  come  out 

O  * 

against  him ;  2  Chron.  xxxv.  22.  Again,  Jer. 
xviii.  9,  10,  "  at  what  instant  I  shall  speak  con- 
cerning a  nation,  and  concerning  a  kingdom,  to 
build  and  to  plant  it ;  if  it  do  evil  in  my  sight, 
that  it  obey  not  my  voice,  then  I  will  repent  of  the 
good  wherewith  I  said  I  would  benefit  them,"  — 
that  is,  I  will  rescind  the  decree,  because  that 
people  hath  not  kept  the  condition  on  which  the 
decree  depended.  Here  then  is  a  rule  laid  down 
by  God  himself,  according  to  which  he  would 
always  have  his  decrees  understood,  —  namely, 
that  regard  should  be  paid  to  the  conditionate 
terms  attached  to  them.  Jer.  xxvi.  3,  "if  so  be 
they  will  hearken,  and  turn  every  man  from  his 
evil  way,  that  I  may  repent  me  of  the  evil,  which 
I  purpose  to  do  unto  them  because  of  the  evil  of 
their  doings."  So  also  God  had  not  even  decreed 
absolutely  the  burning  of  Jerusalem.  Jer.  xxxviii. 
17,  &c.,  "  thus  saith  Jehovah  .  .  .  .  if  thou  wilt 
assuredly  go  forth  unto  the  king  of  Babylon's 
princes,  then  thy  soul  shall  live,  and  this  city 
shall  not  be  burned  with  fire."  Jonah  iii.  iv., 
'*  yet  forty  days,  and  Nineveh  shall  be  over- 
thrown," —  whereas  it  appears  from  the  tenth 
verse,  that  when  God  saw  that  they  turned  from 
their  evil  way,  he  repented  of  his  purpose,  not- 


440  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

withstanding  the  anger  of  Jonah,  who  thought  the 
change  unworthy  of  God.  Acts  xxvii.  24,  31, 
"  God  hath  given  thee  all  them  that  sail  with  thee ; " 
—  and  again,  —  "  except  these  abide  in  the  ship, 
ye  cannot  be  saved,"  where  Paul  revokes  the 
declaration  he  had  previously  made  on  the  au- 
thority of  God;  or  rather,  God  revokes  the  gift 
he  had  made  to  Paul,  except  on  condition  that 
they  should  consult  for  their  own  safety  by  their 
own  personal  exertions. 

It  appears,  therefore,  from  these  passages  of 
Scripture,  as  well  as  from  many  others  of  the 
same  kind,  to  which  we  must  bow,  as  to  a  para- 
mount authority,  that  the  most  high  God  has  not 
decreed  all  things  absolutely. 

If,  however,  it  be  allowable  to  examine  the 
divine  decrees  by  the  laws  of  human  reason,  since 
so  many  arguments  have  been  maintained  on  this 
subject  by  controvertists  on  both  sides,  with  more 
of  subtlety  than  of  solid  argument,  this  theory  of 
contingent  decrees  may  be  defended  even  on  the 
principles  of  men,  as  most  wise,  and  in  no  respect 
unworthy  of  the  Deity.  For  if  those  decrees  of 
God  which  have  been  referred  to  above,  and  such 
others  of  the  same  class  as  occur  perpetually,  were 
to  be  understood  in  an  absolute  sense,  without  any 
implied  conditions,  God  would  contradict  himself, 
and  appear  inconsistent. 

It  is  argued,  however,  that  in  such  instances 
not  only  was  the  ultimate  purpose  predestinated, 


0^  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  441 

but  even  the  means  themselves  were  predesti- 
nated with  a  view  to  it.  So,  indeed,  it  is  as- 
serted, but  not  on  the  authority  of  Scripture ;  and 
the  silence  of  Scripture  would  alone  be  a  suf- 
ficient reason  for  rejecting  the  doctrine.  But  it 
is  also  attended  by  this  additional  inconvenience, 
that  it  would  entirely  take  away  from  human 
affairs  all  liberty  of  action,  all  endeavor  and  de- 
sire to  do  right.  For  we  might  argue  thus,  —  If 
God  have  at  all  events  decreed  my  salvation, 
however  I  may  act,  I  shall  not  perish.  But  God 
has  also  decreed  as  the  means  of  salvation  that 
you  should  act  rightly.  I  cannot,  therefore,  but 
act  rightly  at  some  time  or  other,  since  God  has 
so  decreed,  —  in  the  mean  time  I  will  do  as  I 
please ;  if  I  never  act  rightly,  it  will  be  seen  that 
I  was  never  predestinated  to  salvation,  and  that 
whatever  good  I  might  have  done  would  have 
been  to  no  purpose.  See  more  on  this  subject  in 
the  following  Chapter. 

Nor  is  it  sufficient  to  affirm  in  reply,  that  it  is 
not  compulsory  necessity  which  is  here  intended, 
but  a  necessity  arising  from  the  immutability  of 
God,  whereby  all  things  are  decreed,  or  a  neces- 
sity arising  from  his  infallibility  or  prescience, 
whereby  all  things  are  foreknown.  I  shall  dis- 
pose hereafter  of  this  twofold  necessity  of  the 
schools  ;  in  the  mean  time  no  other  law  of  neces- 
sity can  be  admitted  than  what  logic,  or,  in  other 
words,  what  sound  reason  teaches ;  that  is  to  say, 

19* 


442  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

when  the  efficient  either  causes  some  determinate 
and  uniform  effect  by  its  own  inherent  propensity, 
as,  for  example,  when  fire  burns,  which  kind  is 
denominated  physical  necessity ;  or  when  the 
efficient  is  compelled  by  some  extraneous  force 
to  operate  the  effect,  which  is  called  compulsory 
necessity,  and  in  the  latter  case,  whatever  effect 
the  efficient  produces,  it  produces  per  acddens. 
Now  any  necessity  arising  .from  external  causes 
influences  the  agent  either  determinately  or  com- 
pulsorily ;  and  it  is  apparent  that  on  either  alter- 
native his  liberty  must  be  wholly  annihilated. 
But  though  a  certain  immutable  and  internal 
necessity  of  acting  rightly,  independent  of  all 
extraneous  influence  whatever,  may  exist  in  God 
conjointly  with  the  most  perfect  liberty,  both 
which  principles  in  the  same  divine  nature  tend 
to  the  same  point,  it  does  not  therefore  follow  that 
the  same  thing  can  be  conceded  with  regard  to 
two  different  natures,  as  the  nature  of  God  and 
the  nature  of  man,  in  which  case  the  external 
immutability  of  one  party  may  be  in  opposition 
to  the  internal  liberty  of  the  other,  and  may  pre- 
vent unity  of  will.  Nor  is  it  admitted  that  the 
actions  of  God  are  in  themselves  necessary,  but 
only  that  he  has  a  necessary  existence  ;  for  Scrip- 
ture itself  testifies  that  his  decrees,  and  therefore 
his  actions,  of  what  kind  soever  they  be,  are  per- 
fectly free. 

But  it  is  objected  that  divine  necessity,  or  a 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  443 

first  cause,  imposes  no  constraint  upon  the  liberty 
of  free  agents.  I  answer,  —  if  it  do  not  constrain, 
it  either  determines,  or  co-operates,  or  is  wholly 
inefficient.  If  it  determine  or  co-operate,  it  is 
either  the  sole  or  the  joint  and  principal  cause 
of  every  action,  whether  good  or  bad,  of  free 
agents.  If  it  be  wholly  inefficient,  it  cannot  be 
called  a  cause  in  any  sense,  much  less  can  it  be 
termed  necessity. 

Nor  do  we  imagine  anything  unworthy  of  God, 
when  we  assert  that  those  conditional  events  de- 
pend on  the  human  will,  which  God  himself  has 
chosen  to  place  at  the  free  disposal  of  man ;  since 
the  Deity  purposely  framed  his  own  decrees  with 
reference  to  particular  circumstances,  in  order  that 
he  might  permit  free  causes  to  act  conformably 
to  that  liberty  with  which  he  had  endued  them. 
On  the  contrary,  it  would  be  much  more  un- 
worthy of  God,  that  man  should  nominally  enjoy 
a  liberty  of  which  he  was  virtually  deprived, 
which  would  be  the  case  were  that  liberty  to  be 
oppressed  or  even  obscured  under  the  pretext  of 
some  sophistical  necessity,  of  immutability  or  in- 
fallibility, though  not  of  compulsion,  —  a  notion 
which  has  led,  and  still  continues  to  lead,  many 
individuals  into  error. 

However,  properly  speaking,  the  divine  coun- 
sels can  be  said  to  depend  on  nothing,  but  on  the 
wisdom  of  God  himself,  whereby  he  perfectly 
foreknew  in  his  own  mind  from  the  beginning 


444  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

what  would  be  the  nature  and  event  of  every  fu- 
ture occurrence  when  its  appointed  season  should 
arrive. 

But  it  is  asked  how  events,  which  are  uncer- 
tain, inasmuch  as  they  depend  on  the  human  will, 
can  harmonize  with  the  decrees  of  God,  which  are 
immutably  fixed?  for  it  is  written,  Psal.  xxxiii.  11, 
"  the  counsel  of  Jehovah  standeth  for  ever."  See 
also  Prov.  xix.  21,  and  Isai.  xlvi.  10,  Heb.  vi.  17, 
u  the  immutability  of  his  counsel."  To  this  objec- 
tion it  may  be  answered,  first,  that  to  God  the 
issue  of  events  is  not  uncertain,  but  foreknown 
with  the  utmost  certainty,  though  they  be  not  de- 
creed necessarily,  as  will  appear  hereafter.  —  Sec- 
ondly, in  all  the  passages  referred  to,  the  divine 
counsel  is  said  to  stand  against  all  human  power 
and  counsel,  but  not  against  liberty  of  will  in 
things  which  God  himself  has  placed  at  man's 
disposal,  and  had  determined  so  to  place  from  all 
eternity.  For  otherwise  one  of  God's  decrees 
would  be  in  direct  opposition  to  another,  which 
would  lead  to  the  very  consequence  imputed  by 
the  objector  to  the  doctrines  of  his  opponents, 
inasmuch  as  by  considering  those  things  as  neces- 
sary which  the  Deity  has  left  to  the  uncontrolled 
decision  of  man,  God  would  be  rendered  mutable. 
But  God  is  not  mutable,  so  long  as  he  decrees 
nothing  absolutely  which  could  happen  otherwise 
through  the  liberty  assigned  to  man.  He  would 
indeed  be  mutable,  neither  would  his  counsel 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  445 

stand,  if  he  were  to  obstruct  by  another  decree 
that  liberty  which  he  had  already  decreed,  or  were 
to  darken  it  with  the  least  shadow  of  necessity. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  liberty  of  man 
must  be  considered  entirely  independent  of  ne- 
cessity, nor  can  any  admission  be  made  in  favor 
of  that  modification  of  the  principle  which  is 
founded  on  the  doctrine  of  God's  immutability 
and  prescience.  If  there  be  any  necessity  at  all, 
as  has  been  stated  before,  it  either  determines  free 
agents  to  a  particular  line  of  conduct,  or  it  con- 
strains them  against  their  will,  or  it  co-operates 
with  them  in  conjunction  with  their  will,  or  it  is 
altogether  inoperative.  If  it  determine  free  agents 
to  a  particular  line  of  conduct,  man  will  be  ren- 
dered the  natural  cause  of  all  his  actions,  and 
consequently  of  his  sins,  and  formed  as  it  were 
with  an  inclination  for  sinning.  If  it  constrain 
them  against  their  will,  man  being  subject  to  this 
compulsory  decree,  becomes  the  cause  of  sins  only 
per  accidens,  God  being  the  cause  of  sins  per  se. 
If  it  co-operate  with  them  in  conjunction  with  their 
will,  then  God  becomes  either  the  principal  or  the 
joint  cause  of  sins  with  man.  If  finally  it  be 
altogether  inoperative,  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
necessity,  it  virtually  destroys  itself  by  being  with- 
out operation.  For  it  is  wholly  impossible,  that 
God  should  have  fixed  by  a  necessary  decree  what 
we  know  at  the  same  time  to  be  in  the  power  of 
man  ;  or  that  that  should  be  immutable  which  it 


446  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

remains  for  subsequent  contingent  circumstances 
either  to  fulfil  or  frustrate. 

Whatever,  therefore,  was  left  to  the  free  will  of 
our  first  parents,  could  not  have  been  decreed  im- 
mutably or  absolutely  from  all  eternity ;  and  ques- 
tionless, the  Deity  must  either  have  never  left 
anything  in  the  power  of  man,  or  he  cannot  be 
said  to  have  determined  finally  respecting  what- 
ever was  so  left  without  reference  to  possible  con- 
tingencies. 

If  it  be  objected,  that  this  doctrine  leads  to  ab- 
surd consequences,  we  reply,  either  the  conse- 
quences are  not  absurd,  or  they  are  not  the  conse- 
quences of  the  doctrine.  For  it  is  neither  impi- 
ous nor  absurd  to  say,  that  the  idea  of  certain 
things  or  events  might  be  suggested  to  God  from 
some  extraneous  source  ;  since  inasmuch  as  God 
had  determined  from  all  eternity,  that  man  should 
so  far  be  a  free  agent,  that  it  remained  with  him- 
self to  decide  whether  he  would  stand  or  fall,  the 
idea  of  that  evil  event,  or  of  the  fall  of  man,  was 
suggested  to  God  from  an  extraneous  source,  —  a 
truth  which  all  confess. 

Nor  does  it  follow  from  hence,  that  what  is  tem- 
poral becomes  the  cause  of,  or  a  restriction  upon 
what  is  eternal,  for  it  was  not  anything  temporal, 
but  the  wisdom  of  the  eternal  mind  that  gave  oc- 
casion for  framing  the  divine  counsel. 

Seeing,  therefore,  that,  in  assigning  the  gift  of 
free  will,  God  suffered  both  men  and  angels  to 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  447 

stand  or  fall  at  their  own  uncontrolled  choice, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  decree  itself  bore 
a  strict  analogy  to  the  object  which  the  divine 
counsel  regarded,  not  necessitating  the  evil  conse- 
quences which  ensued,  but  leaving  them  contin- 
gent ;  hence  the  covenant  was  of  this  kind,  —  if 
thou  stand,  thou  shalt  abide  in  Paradise ;  if  thou 
fall,  thou  shalt  be  cast  out :  if  thou  eat  not  the  for- 
bidden fruit,  thou  shalt  live  ;  if  thou  eat,  thou 
shalt  die. 

Hence,  those  who  contend  that  the  liberty  of 
actions  is  subject  to  an  absolute  decree,  erroneous- 
ly conclude  that  the  decree  of  God  is  the  cause  of 
his  foreknowledge,  and  antecedent  in  order  of 
time.  If  we  must  apply  to  God  a  phraseology 
borrowed  from  our  own  habits  and  understanding, 
to  consider  his  decrees  as  consequent  upon  his 
foreknowledge  seems  more  agreeable  to  reason, 
as  well  as  to  Scripture,  and  to  the  nature  of  the 
Deity  himself,  who,  as  has  just  been  proved,  de- 
creed everything  according  to  his  infinite  wisdom 
by  virtue  of  his  foreknowledge. 

That  the  will  of  God  is  the  first  cause  of  all 
things,  is  not  intended  to  be  denied,  but  his  pre- 
science and  wisdom  must  not  be  separated  from 
his  will,  much  less  considered  as  subsequent  to  the 
latter  in  point  of  time.  The  will  of  God,  in  fine, 
is  not  less  the  universal  first  cause,  because  he  has 
himself  decreed  that  some  things  should  be  left 
to  our  own  free  will,  than  if  each  particular  event 
had  been  decreed  necessarily. 


448  FROM  THE  TREATISE 

To  comprehend  the  whole  matter  in  a  few 
words,  the  sum  of  the  argument  may  be  thus 
stated  in  strict  conformity  with  reason.  God  of 
his  wisdom  determined  to  create  men  and  angels 
reasonable  beings,  and  therefore  free  agents ;  fore- 
seeing at  the  same  time  which  way  the  bias  of 
their  will  would  incline,  in  the  exercise  of  their 
own  uncontrolled  liberty.  What  then  ?  shall  we 
say  that  this  foresight  or  foreknowledge  on  the 
part  of  God  imposed  on  them  the  necessity  of  act- 
ing in  any  definite  way  ?  No  more  than  if  the 
future  event  had  been  foreseen  by  any  human  be- 
ing. For  what  any  human  being  has  foreseen  as 
certain  to  happen,  will  not  less  certainly  happen 
than  what  God  himself  has  predicted.  Thus 
Elisha  foresaw  how  much  evil  Hazael  would  bring 
upon  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years,  2  Kings  viii.  12.  Yet  no  one  would  affirm 
that  the  evil  took  place  necessarily  on  account  of 
the  foreknowledge  of  Elisha ;  for  had  he  never 
foreknown  it,  the  event  would  have  occurred  with 
equal  certainty,  through  the  free  will  of  the  agent. 
In  like  manner  nothing  happens  of  necessity,  be- 
cause God  has  foreseen  it ;  but  he  foresees  the 
event  of  every  action,  because  he  is  acquainted 
with  their  natural  causes,  which,  in  pursuance  of 
his  own  decree,  •  are  left  at  liberty  to  exert  their 
legitimate  influence.  Consequently  the  issue  does 
not  depend  on  God  who  foresees  it,  but  on  him 
alone  who  is  the  object  of  his  foresight.  Since, 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  449 

therefore,  as  has  before  been  shown,  there  can  be 
no  absolute  decree  of  God  regarding  free  agents, 
undoubtedly  the  prescience  of  the  Deity  (which 
can  no  more  bias  free  agents  than  the  prescience 
of  man,  that  is,  not  at  all,  since  the  action  in  both 
cases  is  intransitive,  and  has  no  external  influence) 
can  neither  impose  any  necessity  of  itself,  nor  can 
it  be  considered  at  all  as  the  cause  of  free  actions. 
If  it  be  so  considered,  the  very  name  of  liberty 
must  be  altogether  abolished  as  an  unmeaning 
sound  ;  and  that  not  only  in  matters  of  religion, 
but  even  in  questions  of  morality  and  indifferent 
things.  There  can  be  nothing  but  what  will  hap- 
pen necessarily,  since  there  is  nothing  but  what 
is  foreknown  by  God. 

That  this  long  discussion  may  be  at  length  con- 
cluded by  a  brief  summary  of  the  whole  matter, 
we  must  hold  that  God  foreknows  all  future 
events,  but  that  he  has  not  decreed  them  all  ab- 
solutely :  lest  the  consequence  should  be  that  sin 
in  general  would  be  imputed  to  the  Deity,  and 
evil  spirits  and  wicked  men  exempted  from 
blame 

From  what  has  been ,  said  it  is  sufficiently  evi- 
dent, that  free  causes  are  not  impeded  by  any  law 
of  necessity  arising  from  the  decrees  or  prescience 
of  God.  There  are  some  who,  in  their  zeal  to  op- 
pose this  doctrine,  do  not  hesitate  even  to  assert 
that  God  is  himself  the  cause  and  origin  of  sin. 
Such  men,  if  they  are  not  to  be  looked  upon  as 

cc 


450  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

misguided  rather  that  mischievous,  should  be 
ranked  among  the  most  abandoned  of  all  blas- 
phemers. An  attempt  to  refute  them,  would  be 
nothing  more  than  an  argument  to  prove  that  God 

was  not  the  evil  spirit 

Generation  must  be  an  external  efficiency,  since 
the  Father  and  Son  are  different  persons  ;  and  the 
divines  themselves  acknowledge  this,  who  argue 
that  there  is  a  certain  emanation  of  the  Son  from 
the  Father  (which  will  be  explained  when  the 
doctrine  concerning  the  Holy  Spirit  is  under  ex- 
amination) ;  for  though  they  teach  that  the  Spirit 
is  co-essential  with  the  Father,  they  do  not  deny 
its  emanation,  procession,  spiration,  and  issuing 
from  the  Father,  —  which  are  all  expressions  de- 
noting external  efficiency.  In  conjunction  with 
this  doctrine  they  hold  that  the  Son  is  also  co- 
essential  with  the  Father,  and  generated  from  all 
eternity.  Hence  this  question,  which  is  naturally 
very  obscure,  becomes  involved  in  still  greater 
difficulties  if  the  received  opinion  respecting  it  be 
followed  ;  for  though  the  Father  be  said  in  Scrip- 
ture to  have  begotten  the  Son  in  a  double  sense, 
the  one  literal,  with  reference  to  the  production 
of  the  Son,  the  other  metaphorical,  with  reference 
to  his  exaltation,  many  commentators  have  applied 
the  passages  which  allude  to  the  exaltation  and 
mediatorial  functions  of  Christ  as  proof  of  his  gen- 
eration from  all  eternity.  They  have  indeed  this 
excuse,  if  any  excuse  can  be  received  in  such  a 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  451 

case,  that  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  single  text  in  all 
Scripture  to  prove  the  eternal  generation  of  the 
Son.  Certain,  however,  it  is,  whatever  some  of 
the  moderns  may  allege  to  the  contrary,  that  the 
Son  existed  in  the  beginning,  under  the  name  of 
the  logos,  or  word,  and  was  the  first  of  the  whole 

o       *  * 

creation,  by  whom  afterwards  all  other  things  were 
made,  both  in  heaven  and  earth.  John  i.  1-3, 
"  in  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word 
was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God,"  &c. 
xvii.  5,  "  and  now,  O  Father,  glorify  me  with 
thine  own  self  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with 
thee  before  the  world  was."  Col.  i.  15,  18,  "the 
first-born  of  every  creature."  Rev.  iii.  14,  "the 
beginning  of  the  creation  of  God."  1  Cor.  viii.  6, 
"  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  are  all  things."  Eph.  iii.  9, 
"  who  created  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ."  Col. 
i.  16,  "  all  things  were  created  by  him  and  for 
him."  Heb.  i.  2,  "  by  whom  also  he  made  the 
worlds,"  whence  it  is  said,  v.  10,  "  thou,  Lord,  in 
the  beginning  hast  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
earth  "  ;  respecting  which  more  will  be  said  in  the 
seventh  chapter,  on  the  Creation. 

All  these  passages  prove  the  existence  of  the 
Son  before  the  world  was  made,  but  they  conclude 
nothing  respecting  his  generation  from  all  eternity. 
The  other  texts  which  are  produced  relate  only  to 
his  metaphorical  generation,  that  is,  to  his  resusci- 
tation from  the  dead,  or  to  his  unction  to  the  me- 
diatorial office,  according  to  St.  Paul's  own  inter- 


452  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

pretation  of  the  second  Psalm :  "I  will  declare 
the  decree ;  Jehovah  hath  said  unto  me,  Thou  art 
my  Son  ;  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee,"  —  which 
the  apostle  thus  explains,  Acts  xiii.  32,  33, 
"God  hath  fulfilled  the  promise  unto  us  their 
children,  in  that  he  hath  raised  up  Jesus  again ; 
as  it  is  also  written  in  the  second  Psalm,  Thou  art 
my  Son ;  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee."  Rom. 
i.  4,  "  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power, 
according  to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  by  the  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead."  Hence,  Col.  i.  18,  Rev.  i.  4, 
"  the  first  begotten  of  the  dead."  Heb.  i.  5, 
speaking  of  the  exaltation  of  the  Son  above  the 
angels ;  "for  unto  which  of  the  angels  said  he  at 
any  time,  Thou  art  my  Son,  this  day  have  I  be- 
gotten thee  ?  and  again,  I  will  be  to  him  a  Father, 
and  he  shall  be  to  me  a  Son."  Again,  v.  5,  6, 
with  reference  to  the  priesthood  of  Christ ;  "so 
also  Christ  glorified  not  himself  to  be  made  an 
High  Priest,  but  he  that  said  unto  him,  Thou  art 
my  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee :  as  he  said 
also  in  another  place,  Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever," 
<fec.  Further,  it  will  be  apparent  from  the  second 
Psalm,  that  God  has  begotten  the  Son,  that  is,  has 
made  him  a  king:  v.  6,  "yet  have  I  set  my  King 
upon  my  holy  hill  of  Sion  "  ;  and  then  in  the  next 
verse,  after  having  anointed  his  King,  whence  the 
name  of  Christ  is  derived,  he  says,  "  this  day  have 
I  begotten  thee."  Heb.  i.  4,  5,  "  being  made  so 
much  better  than  the  angels,  as  he  hath  by  inher- 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  453 

itance  obtained  a  more  excellent  name  than  they." 
No  other  name  can  be  intended  but  that  of  Son, 
as  the  following  verse  proves :  "  for  unto  which  of 
the  angels  said  he  at  any  time,  Thou  art  my  Son  ; 
this  day  have  I  begotten  thee  ? "  The  Son  also 
declares  the  same  of  himself.  John  x.  35,  36, 
"  say  ye  of  Him  whom  the  Father  hath  sanctified, 
and  sent  into  the  world,  Thou  blasphemest,  be- 
cause I  said,  I  am  the  Son  of  God  ?  "  By  a  simi- 
lar figure  of  speech,  though  in  a  much  lower 
sense,  the  saints  are  also  said  to  be  begotten  of 
God. 

It  is  evident,  however,  upon  a  careful  comparison 
and  examination  of  all  these  passages,  and  particu- 
larly from  the  whole  of  the  second  Psalm,  that 
however  the  generation  of  the  Son  may  have 
taken  place,  it  arose  from  no  natural  necessity,  as 
is  generally  contended,  but  was  no  less  owing  to 
the  decree  and  will  of  the  Father  than  his  priest- 
hood or  kingly  power,  or  his  resuscitation  from  the 
dead.  Nor  is  it  any  objection  to  this  that  he  bears 
the  title  of  begotten,  in  whatever  sense  that  ex- 
pression is  to  be  understood,  or  of  God's  own  Son, 
Rom.  viii.  32.  For  he  is  called  the  own  Son  of 
God  merely  because  he  had  no  other  Father  be- 
sides God,  whence  he  himself  said,  that  Grod  was 
Ms  Father,  John  v.  18.  For  to  Adam  God  stood 
less  in  the  relation  of  Father,  than  of  Creator, 
having  only  formed  him  from  the  dust  of  the 
earth  ;  whereas  he  was  properly  the  Father  of  the 


454  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

Son  made  of  his  own  substance.  Yet  it  does  not 
follow  from  hence  that  the  Son  is  co-essential  with 
the  Father,  for  then  the  title  of  Son  would  be  least 
of  all  applicable  to  him,  since  he  who  is  properly 
the  Son  is  not  coeval  with  the  Father,  much  less 
of  the  same  numerical  essence,  otherwise  the 
Father  and  the  Son  would  be  one  person  ;  nor  did 
the  Father  beget  him  from  any  natural  necessity, 
but  of  his  own  free  will,  —  a  mode  more  perfect 
and  more  agreeable  to  the  paternal  dignity  ;  par- 
ticularly since  the  Father  is  God,  all  whose  works, 
and  consequently  the  works  of  generation,  are  ex- 
ecuted freely  according  to  his  own  good  pleasure, 
as  has  been  already  proved  from  Scripture. 

For,  questionless,  it  was  in  God's  power  consist- 
ently with  the  perfection  of  his  own  essence  not 
to  have  begotten  the  Son,  inasmuch  as  generation 
does  not  pertain  to  the  nature  of  the  Deity,  who 
stands  in  no  need  of  propagation ;  but  whatever 
does  not  pertain  to  his  own  essence  or  nature,  he 
does  not  effect  like  a  natural  agent  from  any  phy- 
sical necessity.  If  the  generation  of  the  Son  pro- 
ceeded from  a  physical  necessity,  the  Father  im- 
paired himself  by  physically  begetting  a  co-equal ; 
which  God  could  no  more  do  than  he  could  deny 
himself;  therefore  the  generation  of  the  Son  can- 
not have  proceeded  otherwise  than  from  a  decree, 
and  of  the  Father's  own  free  will. 

Thus  the  Son  was  begotten  of  the  Father  in 
consequence  of  his  decree,  and  therefore  within 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  455 

the  limits  of  time,  for  the  decree  itself  must  have 
been  anterior  to  the  execution  of  the  decree,  as  is 
sufficiently  clear  from  the  insertion  of  the  word 

to-day 

According  to  the  testimony  of  the  Son,  deliv- 
ered in  the  clearest  terms,  the  Father  is  that  one 
true  God,  by  whom  are  all  things.  Being  asked 
by  one  of  the  scribes,  Mark  xii.  28,  29,  32,  which 
was  the  first  commandment  of  all,  he  answered 
from  Deut.  vi.  4,  "  the  first  of  all  the  command- 
ments is,  *  Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God  is 
one  Lord '  "  ;  or  as  it  is  in  the  Hebrew,  "  Jehovah 
our  God  is  one  Jehovah."  The  scribe  assented ; 
"  there  is  one  God,  and  there  is  none  other  one 
but  he  " ;  and  in  the  following  verse  Christ  ap- 
proves this  answer.  Nothing  can  be  more  clear 
than  that  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  scribe,  as  well 
as  of  the  other  Jews,  that  by  the  unity  of  God  is 
intended  his  oneness  of  person.  That  this  God 
was  no  other  than  God  the  Father,  is  proved  from 
John  viii.  41,  54,  "  we  have  one  Father,  even 
God  ....  it  is  my  Father  that  honoreth  me  ;  of 
whom  ye  say  that  he  is  your  God."  iv.  21, 
"  neither  in  this  mountain,  nor  yet  at  Jerusalem, 
shall  ye  worship  the  Father."  Christ  therefore 
agrees  with  the  whole  people  of  God,  that  the 
Father  is  that  one  and  only  God.  For  who  can 
believe  it  possible  for  the  very  first  of  the  com- 
mandments to  have  been  so  obscure,  and  so  ill 
understood  by  the  Church  through  such  a  succes- 


456  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

sion  of  ages,  that  two  other  persons,  equally  en- 
titled to  worship,  should  have  remained  wholly 
unknown  to  the  people  of  God,  and  debarred  of 
divine  honors  even  to  that  very  day  ?  especially  as 
God,  where  he  is  teaching  his  own  people  respect- 
ing the  nature  of  their  worship  under  the  Gospel, 
forewarns  them  that  they  would  have  for  their 
God  the  one  Jehovah  whom  they  had  always 
served,  and  David,  that  is,  Christ,  for  their  King 
and  Lord.  Jer.  xxx.  9,  "  they  shall  serve  Jeho- 
vah their  God,  and  David  their  King,  whom  I 
will  raise  up  unto  them."  In  this  passage  Christ, 
such  as  God  willed  that  he  should  be  known  or 
worshipped  by  his  people  under  the  Gospel,  is  ex- 
pressly distinguished  from  the  one  God  Jehovah, 
both  by  nature  and  title.  Christ  himself  there- 
fore, the  Son  of  God,  teaches  us  nothing  in  the 
Gospel  respecting  the  one  God  but  what  the  law 
had  before  taught,  and  everywhere  clearly  asserts 
him  to  be  his  Father.  John  xvii.  3,  "  this  is  life 
eternal,  that  they  might  know  thee,  the  only  true 
God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent." 
xx.  17,  "  I  ascend  unto  my  Father  and  your 
Father ;  and  to  my  God  and  your  God  " ;  if  there- 
fore the  Father  be  the  God  of  Christ,  and  the  same 
be  our  God,  and  if  there  be  none  other  God  but 
one,  there  can  be  no  God  beside  the  Father.  .  .  . 
Recurring,  however,  to  the  Gospel  itself,  on 
which,  as  on  a  foundation,  our  dependence  should 
chiefly  be  placed,  and  adducing  my  proofs  more 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  457 

especially  from  the  evangelist  John,  the  leading 
purpose  of  whose  work  was  to  declare  explicitly 
the  nature  of  the  Son's  divinity,  I  proceed  to  de- 
monstrate the  other  proposition  announced  in  my 
original  division  of  the  subject,  —  namely,  that  the 
Son  himself  professes  to  have  received  from  the 
Father,  not  only  the  name  of  God  and  of  Jehovah, 
but  all  that  pertains  to  his  own  being,  —  that  is  to 
say,  his  individuality,  his  existence  itself,  his  attri- 
butes, his  works,  his  divine  honors  ;  to  which  doc- 
trine the  apostles  also,  subsequent  to  Christ,  bear 
their  testimony.  John  iii.  35,  "  the  Father  loveth 
the  Son,  and  hath  given  all  things  unto  him." 
xiii.  3,  "  Jesus  knowing  that  the  Father  had  given 
all  things  unto  him,  and  that  he  was  come  from 

O  7 

God."  Mat.  xi.  27,  "all  things  are  delivered 
unto  me  of  my  Father."  .... 

Christ  therefore,  having  received  all  these  things 
from  the  Father,  and  "  being  in  the  form  of  God, 
thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God," 
Philipp.  ii.  5,  namely,  because  he  had  obtained 
them  by  gift,  not  by  robbery.  For  if  this  passage 
imply  his  co-equality  with  the  Father,  it  rather 
refutes  than  proves  his  unity  of  essence ;  since 
equality  cannot  exist  but  between  two  or  more 
essences.  Further,  the  phrase  he  did  not  think  it, 
—  he  made  himself  of  no  reputation,  (literally,  he 
emptied  himself,}  appear  inapplicable  to  the  su- 
preme God.  For  to  think  is  nothing  else  than  to 
entertain  an  opinion,  which  cannot  be  properly 
20 


458  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

said  of  God.  Nor  can  the  infinite  God  be  said  to 
empty  himself,  any  more  than  to  contradict  him- 
self ;  for  infinity  and  emptiness  are  opposite  terms. 
But  since  he  emptied  himself  of  that  form  of  God 
in  which  he  had  previously  existed,  if  the  form  of 
God  is  to  be  taken  for  the  essence  of  the  Deity 
itself,  it  would  prove  him  to  have  emptied  himself 
of  that  essence,  which  is  impossible 

Such  was  the  faith  of  the  saints  respecting  the 
Son  of  God ;  such  is  the  tenor  of  the  celebrated 
confession  of  that  faith ;  such  is  the  doctrine  which 
alone  is  taught  in  Scripture,  which  is  acceptable  to 
God,  and  has  the  promise  of  eternal  salvation.  .  .  . 

Finally,  this  is  the  faith  proposed  to  us  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  the  most  ancient  and  universally 
received  compendium  of  belief  in  the  possession 
of  the  Church 


THE  intent  of  SUPERNATURAL  RENOVATION  is 
not  only  to  restore  man  more  completely  than  be- 
fore to  the  use  of  his  natural  faculties  as  regards 
his  power  to  form  right  judgment,  and  to  exercise 
free  will ;  but  to  create  afresh,  as  it  were,  the  in- 
ward man,  and  infuse  from  above  new  and  super- 
natural faculties  into  the  minds  of  the  renovated. 
This  is  called  REGENERATION,  and  the  regenerate 
are  said  to  be  PLANTED  IN  CHRIST. 

REGENERATION  is  THAT  CHANGE  OPERATED  BY 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  459 

THE  WORD  AND  THE  SPIRIT,  WHEREBY  THE  OLD 
MAN  BEING  DESTROYED,  THE  INWARD  MAN  IS  RE- 
GENERATED BY  GOD  AFTER  HIS  OWN  IMAGE,  IN 
ALL  THE  FACULTIES  OF  HIS  MIND,  INSOMUCH  THAT 
HE  BECOMES  AS  IT  WERE  A  NEW  CREATURE,  AND 
THE  WHOLE  MAN  IS  SANCTIFIED  BOTH  IN  BODY  AND 
SOUL,  FOR  THE  SERVICE  OF  GOD,  AND  THE  PER- 
FORMANCE OF  GOOD  WORKS.  John  iii.  3,  5,  "  ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  king- 
dom of  God  ....  except  a  man  be  born  of  water 
and  the  Spirit."  1  Pet.  i.  23,  "  being  born  again, 
not  of  corruptible  seed,  but  of  incorruptible." 

Is  REGENERATED  BY  GOD  ;  namely,  the  Father ; 
for  no  one  regenerates,  except  the  Father.  Psal. 
li.  10,  "  create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God,  and 
renew  a  right  spirit  within  me."  Ezek.  xi.  19, 
"  I  will  put  a  new  spirit  within  you."  John  i.  12, 
13,  "  to  them  gave  he  the  power  to  become  the 
sons  of  God  ....  which  were  born,  not  of  blood 
....  but  of  God."  iii.  5,  6,  "  except  a  man  be 
born  of  water  and  the  Spirit  — "  ;  where  by  the 
Spirit  appears  to  be  meant  the  divine  power  of  the 
Father ;  for  the  Father  is  a  Spirit ;  and,  as  was 
said  before,  no  one  generates  except  the  Father, 
xvii.  17,  "  sanctify  them  through  thy  truth." 
Rom.  viii.  11,  16,  "  but  if  the  Spirit  of  him  that 
raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead  — :  the  Spirit  itself 
beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the 
children  of  God."  Gal.  iv.  6,  "because  ye  are 
sons,  God  hath  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  his  Son  into 


460 

your  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father."  Eph.  ii.  4,  5, 
"  God  who  is  rich  in  mercy  ....  hath  quickened 
us  together  with  Christ."  1  Thess.  v.  23,  "  the 
very  God  of  peace  sanctify  you  wholly."  Tit.  iii. 
5,  "  according  to  his  mercy  he  saved  us  by  the 
washing  of  regeneration  and  renewing  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  Heb.  xiii.  20,  "  the  God  of  peace 
....  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work." 
1  Pet.  i.  3,  «*  blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  according  to  his 
abundant  mercy  hath  begotten  us  again  — ." 
James  i.  17,  18,  "of  his  own  will  begat  he  us." 

BY  THE  WORD  AND  THE  SPIRIT.  John  xvii. 
17,  "  sanctify  them  through  thy  truth  ;  thy  word 
is  truth."  James  i.  18,  "  of  his  own  will  begat 
he  us  with  the  word  of  truth."  Eph.  v.  26, 
"that  he  might  cleanse  it  with  the  washing  of 
water  by  the  Word."  1  Cor.  xii.  13,  "  by  one 
Spirit  we  are  all  baptized  into  one  body."  Tit.  iii. 
5,  "  by  the  washing  of  regeneration  and  renewing 
of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

THE  INWARD  MAN.  John  iii.  5,  6,  "  that  which 
is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit."  Rom.  vii.  22, 
"after  the  inward  man." 

THE   OLD   MAN  BEING   DESTROYED.       Rom.  vi.  6, 

"  knowing  this,  that  our  old  man  is  crucified  with 
him,  that  the  body  of  sin  might  be  destroyed." 
v.  11,  "  likewise  reckon  ye  also  yourselves  to  be 
dead  indeed  unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God  through 

7  O 

Jesus   Christ   our   Lord."      2  Cor.  v.  17,   "  old 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  461 

things  are  passed  away ;  behold,  all  things  are  be- 
come new."  Col.  iii.  9-11,  "  that  ye  have  put 
off  the  old  man  with  his  deeds,  and  have  put  on 
the  new  man." 

IN    ALL    THE    FACULTIES    OF    HIS    MIND  ;   that   is 

to  say,  in  understanding  and  will.  Psal.  li.  10, 
"  create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God."  Ezek.  xi. 
19,  "I  will  put  a  new  spirit  within  you  .... 
and  I  will  give  them  an  heart  of  flesh."  xxxvi. 
26,  "  a  new  heart  also  will  I  give  you,  and  a  new 
spirit  will  I  put  within  you."  Rom.  xii.  2,  "  be 
ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your  mind, 
that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good  ....  will 
of  God."  Eph.  iv.  23,  "  be  renewed  in  the  spirit 
of  your  mind."  Philipp.  ii.  13,  "  it  is  God  which 
worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  do  his  good  pleas- 
ure." This  renewal  of  the  will  can  mean  nothing, 
but  a  restoration  to  its  former  liberty. 

AFTER  HIS  OWN  IMAGE.  Eph.  iv.  24,  "  put  on 
the  new  man,  which  after  God  is  created  in  right- 
eousness and  true  holiness."  Col.  iii.  9-11, 
"  which  is  renewed  in  knowledge  after  the  image 
of  him  that  created  him."  2  Pet.  i.  4,  "  that  by 
these  ye  might  be  partakers  of  the  divine  nature, 
having  escaped  the  corruption  that  is  in  the  world 
through  lust."  If  the  choice  were  given  us,  we 
could  ask  nothing  more  of  God,  than  that,  being 
delivered  from  the  slavery  of  sin,  and  restored  to 
the  divine  image,  we  might  have  it  in  our  power 
to  obtain  salvation  if  willing.  Willing  we  shall 


462  FROM  THE   TREATISE 

undoubtedly  be,  if  truly  free ;  and  he  who  is  not 
willing,  has  no  one  to  accuse  but  himself.  But  if 
the  will  of  the  regenerate  be  not  made  free,  then 
we  are  not  renewed,  but  compelled  to  embrace 
salvation  in  an  unregenerate  state. 

A  NEW  CREATURE.  2  Cor.  v.  17,  "  if  any  man 
be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature."  Gal.  vi.  15, 
"  a  new  creature."  Eph.  iv.  24,  "  the  new  man." 
See  also  Col.  iii.  10, 11.  Hence  some,  less  proper- 
ly, divide  regeneration  into  two  parts,  the  mortifi- 
cation of  the  flesh,  and  the  quickening  of  the  spirit ; 
whereas  mortification  cannot  be  a  constituent  part 
of  regeneration,  inasmuch  as  it  partly  precedes  it, 
(that  is  to  say,  as  corruption  precedes  generation,) 
and  partly  follows  it ;  in  which  latter  capacity  it 
belongs  rather  to  repentance.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  quickening  of  the  spirit  is  as  often  used  to  sig- 
nify resurrection  as  regeneration.  John  v.  21, 
"  as  the  Father  raiseth  up  the  dead  and  quicken- 
eth  them,  even  so  the  Son  quickeneth  whom  he 
will."  v.  25,  "  the  dead  shall  hear  the  voice  of 
the  Son  of  God,  and  they  that  hear  shall  live." 

THE  WHOLE  MAN.  1  Cor.  vi.  15,  19,  "  know 
ye  not  that  your  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  which  is  in  you  ?  "  1  Thess.  v.  23,  "  the 
very  God  of  peace  sanctify  you  wholly,  and  I  pray 
God  your  whole  spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  pre- 
served blameless  unto  the  coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ." 

FOR    THE    PERFORMANCE    OF    GOOD    WORKS.       1 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  463 

John  ii.  29,  "  if  ye  know  that  he  is  righteous,  ye 
know  that  every  one  that  doeth  righteousness  is 
born  of  him."  Eph.  ii.  10,  "  we  are  his  work- 
manship, created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good 
works." 

Is  SANCTIFIED.  1  John  iii.  9,  "  whosoever  is 
born  of  God,  doth  not  commit  sin,  for  his  seed  re- 
maineth  in  him  ;  and  he  cannot  sin  because  he  is 
born  of  God."  v.  18,  "  whosoever  is  born  of  God, 
sinneth  not,  but  he  that  is  begotten  of  God  keep- 
eth  himself,  and  that  wicked  one  toucheth  him 
not."  Hence  regeneration  is  sometimes  termed 
sanctification,  being  the  literal  mode  of  expressing 
that,  for  which  regeneration  is  merely  a  figurative 
phrase.  1  Cor.  vi.  11,  "  such  were  some  of  you ; 
but  ye  are  washed,  but  ye  are  sanctified,  but  ye 
are  justified."  1  Thess.  iv.  7,  "  God  hath  not 
called  us  unto  uncleanness,  but  unto  holiness."  2 
Thess.  ii.  13.  "because  God  hath  from  the  begin- 
ning chosen  you  to  salvation  through  sanctification 
of  the  Spirit."  1  Pet.  i.  2,  "according  to  the 
foreknowledge  of  God  the  Father,  through  the 

O  '  O 

sanctification  of  the  Spirit.  "  Deut.  xxx.  6,  "  Je- 
hovah thy  God  will  circumcise  thine  heart,  and 
the  heart  of  thy  seed,  to  love  Jehovah  thy  God." 
Sanctification  is  also  attributed  to  the  Son.  Eph. 
v.  25,  26,  "  Christ  loved  the  church,  and  gave 
himself  for  it,  that  he  might  sanctify  and  cleanse 
it  with  the  washing  of  water  by  the  word." 
Tit.  ii.  14,  "that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all 


464  FROM   THE   TREATISE 

iniquity,  and  purify  unto  himself  (unto  himself  as 
our  Redeemer  and  King)  a  peculiar  people." 

Sanctification  is  sometimes  used  in  a  more  ex- 
tended sense,  for  any  kind  of  election  or  separa- 
tion, either  of  a  whole  nation  to  some  particular 
form  of  worship,  or  of  an  individual  to  some  office. 
Exod.  xix.  10,  "  sanctify  them  to-day  and  to-mor- 
row." xxxi.  13,  "  that  ye  may  know  that  I  am 
Jehovah  that  doth  sanctify  you."  See  also  Ezek. 
xx.  12;  Numb.  xi.  18,  "  sanctify  yourselves  against 
to-morrow."  Jer.  i.  5,  "  before  thou  earnest  forth 
out  of  the  womb,  I  sanctified  thee,  and  I  ordained 
thee  a  prophet  unto  the  nations."  Luke  i.  15, 
"he  shall  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  even 
from  his  mother's  womb." 

The  external  cause  of  regeneration  or  sanctifi- 
cation  is  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ. 
Eph.  ii.  4,  5,  "when  we  were  dead  in  sins,  God 
hath  quickened  us  together  with  Christ."  v.  25, 
26,  "  Christ  gave  himself  for  the  church,  that  he 
might  sanctify  and  cleanse  it."  Heb.  ix.  14, 
"  how  much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who 
through  the  eternal  Spirit  offered  himself  without 
spot  to  God,  purge  your  conscience  from  dead 
works  to  serve  the  living  God."  x.  10,  "  by  the 
which  will  we  are  sanctified  through  the  offering 
of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ."  1  Pet.  i.  2,  3, 
"  through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit,  unto  obe- 
dience  and  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
v  ...  which  hath  begotten  us  again  by  a  lively 


ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.  465 

hope,  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the 
dead."  1  John  i.  7,  "  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
his  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." 

Sanctification  is  attributed  also  to  faith.  Acts 
xv.  9,  "  purifying  their  hearts  by  faith  "  ;  not  that 
faith  is  anterior  to  sanctification,  but  because  faith 
is  an  instrumental  and  assisting  cause  in  its  gradual 
progress. 


20* 


A  LIST  OF  MILTON'S  PROSE  WORKS. 

ARRANGED  IN  CHRONOLOGICAL  ORDER. 

1641 —  1.  Of  Reformation  in  England,  and  the  Causes  that 
hitherto  have  hindered  it.  In  Two  Books.  Written 
to  a  Friend. 

2.  Of  Prelatical  Episcopacy,  and  whether  it  may  be 
deduced  from  the  Apostolical  Times,  by  Virtue  of 
those  Testimonies  which  are  alleged  to  that  Purpose 
in  some  late  Treatises ;  one  whereof  goes  under  the 
name  of  James,  Archbishop  of  Armagh. 

3.  The  Reason  of  Church  Government  urged  against 
Prelaty.    In  Two  Books. 

4.  Animadversions  upon  the  Remonstrant's  Defence 
against  Smectymnuus. 

1642.  —  5.  An  Apology  against  a  Pamphlet  called  "  A  Modest 
Confutation  of  the  Animadversions  upon  the  Remon- 
strant against  Smectymnuus."  (Better  known  by  its 
briefer  title,  An  Apology  for  Smectymnuus.) 

1644.  —  6.  The  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce ;  restored 
to  the  Good  of  both  Sexes,  from  the  Bondage  of 
Canon  Law,  and  other  Mistakes,  to  the  true  meaning 
of  Scripture  in  the  Law  and  Gospel  compared. 
Wherein  also  are  set  down  the  bad  Consequences  of 
abolishing,  or  condemning  as  Sin,  that  which  the  Law 
of  God  allows,  and  Christ  abolished  not.  Now  the 
second  time  revised  and  much  augmented.  In  Two 
Books.  To  the  Parliament  of  England  with  the 


468      LIST  OF  MILTON'S  PROSE  WORKS. 

Assembly.  (Two  editions  were  published  in  the 
same  year.  The  title  given  above  is  of  the  second.) 

1644.  —  7.  The  Judgment  of  Martin  Bucer,  concerning  Di- 

vorce :  written  to  Edward  the  Sixth,  in  his  Second 
Book  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ :  and  now  Englished. 
Wherein  a  late  Book,  restoring  "  the  Doctrine  and 
Discipline  of  Divorce,"  is  here  confirmed  and  justi- 
fied by  the  Authority  of  Martin  Bucer.  To  the 
Parliament  of  England. 

8.  On  Education.     (In  a  Letter  to  Master  Samuel 
Hartlib.) 

9.  Areopagitica :    a  Speech  for  the  Liberty  of  Un- 
licensed Printing.     To  the  Parliament  of  England. 

1645.  — 10.  Tetrachordon :  Expositions  upon  the  Four  Chief 

Places  in  Scripture  which  treat  of  Marriage,  or 
Nullities  in  Marriage.  Wherein  "  the  Doctrine  and 
Discipline  of  Divorce,"  as  was  lately  published,  is 
confirmed  by  Explanation  of  Scripture;  by  Testi- 
mony of  Ancient  Fathers ;  of  Civil  Laws  in  the 
Primitive  Church ;  of  famousest  Reformed  Divines ; 
and  lastly,  by  an  intended  Act  of  the  Parliament 
and  Church  of  England  in  the  last  Year  of  Edward 
the  Sixth. 

11.  Colasterion :  a  Reply  to  a  Nameless  Answer 
against  "  the  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce." 
Wherein  the  trivial  Author  of  that  Answer  is  dis- 
covered, the  Licenser  conferred  with,  and  the 
Opinion  which  they  traduce  defended. 
1648-9  (Feb.).  — 12.  The  Tenure  of  Kings  and  Magistrates : 
proving  that  it  is  lawful,  and  hath  been  held  so 
through  all  Ages,  for  any  who  have  the  Power,  to 
call  to  Account  a  Tyrant,  or  wicked  King,  and  after 
due  Conviction,  to  depose,  and  put  him  to  Death,  if 
the  ordinary  Magistrate  have  neglected  or  denied  to 
do  it.  And  that  they  who  of  late  so  much  blame 
deposing,  the  Presbyterians,  are  the  men  that  did  it 
themselves. 


LIST  OF  MILTON'S  PROSE   WORKS.     439 

1648-9.  — 13.  Observations  on  the  Articles  of  Peace,  between 
James  Earl  of  Ormond  for  King  Charles  the  First 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Irish  Rebels  and  Papists 
on  the  other  hand :  and  on  a  Letter  sent  by  Ormond 
to  Colonel  Jones,  Governor  of  Dublin.  And  a 
Representation  of  the  Scots  Presbytery  at  Belfast  in 
Ireland.  To  which  the  said  Articles,  Letter,  with 
Colonel  Jones's  Answer  to  it,  and  Representation, 
&c.,  are  prefixed.  (Published  before  his  appointment 
as  Latin  Secretary,  March  15th,  1648-9.) 

1649.  — 14.  Eikonoklastes :  in  Answer  to  a  Book  entitled 

"Eikon  Basilike,  The  Portraiture  of  His  Sacred 
Majesty  in  his  Solitudes  and  Sufferings." 

1650.  —  15.  Pro  Populo  Anglicano  Defensio,  contra  Claudii 

anonymi  alias  Salmasii  Defensionem  Regiam.  A 
Defence  of  the  People  of  England ;  in  Answer  to 
Salmasius's  Defence  of  the  King.  (The  translation 
is  ascribed  by  Toland  to  Mr.  Washington  of  the 
Temple.) 

1654.  —  16.  Defensio  Secunda  pro  Populo  Anglicano  contra 

Infamem  Libellum  anonymum,  cui  titulus,  Regii 
Sanguinis  Clamor  ad  Ccelum  adversus  Parricidas 
Anglicanos.  The  Second  Defence  of  the  People  of 
England :  against  an  anonymous  Libel,  entitled 
"  The  Royal  Blood  crying  to  Heaven  for  Vengeance 
on  the  English  Parricides."  (The  translation  is  by 
Robert  Fellowes,  A.  M.,  Oxon.) 

1655.  — 17.  Authoris  pro  se  Defensio  contra  Alexandmm 

Morum  Libelli,  cui  titulus,  Regii  Sanguinis,  &c. 
Authorem  recte  dictum. 

18.  Authoris  ad  Alexandri  Mori  Supplementum  Re- 
sponsio.     (These  two  polemic  tracts  have,  I  think, 
never  been  translated.) 

19.  A  Manifesto  of  the  Lord  Protector  to  the  Com- 
monwealth   of    England,    Scotland,    Ireland,    &c. 
Published  by  consent  and  advice  of  his  Council. 


470     LIST  OF  MILTON'S  PROSE   WORKS. 

Wherein  is  shown  the  Reasonableness  of  the  Cause 
of  this  Republic  against  the  Depredations  of  the 
Spaniards.  (Written  in  Latin  by  John  Milton,  and 
first  printed  in  1655  ;  translated  into  English  in 
1738.) 

1659.  —  20.   A  Treatise  of  Civil  Power  in  Ecclesiastical 

Causes ;  showing  that  it  is  not  lawful  for  any  Power 
on  Earth  to  compel  in  matters  of  Religion.  To  the 
Parliament  of  the  Commonwealth  of  England,  with 
the  Dominions  thereof. 

21.  Considerations  touching  the  likeliest   Means  to 
remove  Hirelings  out  of  the  Church.     Wherein  is 
also  discoursed  of  Tithes,  Church  Fees,  and  Church 
Revenues ;  and  whether  any  Maintenance  of  Minis- 
ters can  be  settled  by  Law.     To  the  Parliament  of 
England,  with  the  Dominions  thereof. 

22.  A  Letter  to  a  Friend  concerning  the  Ruptures  of 
the  Commonwealth.    (Dated  Oct.  20, 1659,  but  first 
published  by  Toland  in  1698.) 

23.  The  Present  Means  and  Brief  Delineation  of  a 
Free  Commonwealth,  easy  to  be  put  in  practice,  and 
without  delay.    In  a  Letter  to  General  Monk. 

1660.  —  24.  The  ready  and  easy  Way  to  establish  a  free 

Commonwealth,  and  the  Excellence  thereof,  com- 
pared with  the  Inconveniences  and  Dangers  of 
re-admitting  Kingship  in  this  Nation. 
25.  Brief  Notes  upon  a  late  Sermon  titled,  The  Fear 
of  God  and  the  King ;  preached  and  since  published 
by  Matthew  Griffith,  D.  D.,  and  Chaplain  to  the  late 
King.  Wherein  many  notorious  wrestings  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  other  Falsities,  are  observed. 

1661.  —  26.  Accedence  Commenced  Grammar,  supplied  with 

Sufficient  Rules  for  the  use  of  such  as,  younger  or 
elder,  are  desirous,  without  more  trouble  than  needs, 
to  attain  the  Latin  Tongue ;  the  elder  sort  especially, 
with  little  teaching  and  their  own  industry.  (It  had 


LIST  OF  M1LTOWS  PROSE   WORKS.    471 

probably  been  prepared  some  years  before  its  pub- 
lication.) 

1670. —  27.  The  History  of  Britain,  that  part  especially  now 
called  England,  from  the  first  Traditional  Beginning 
continued  to  the  Norman  Conquest;  collected  out 
of  the  ancientest  and  best  Authors  thereof.  (This 
work,  though  published  in  1670,  was  written  mostly 
before  the  Restoration.  The  royal  licenser  expunged 
several  passages,  which  appeared  in  a  pamphlet  by 
themselves  in  1681,  and  were  incorporated  into  an 
edition  of  Milton's  Prose  Works  published  in  1738. 
See  a  brief  notice  of  this  in  Disraeli's  Curiosities  of 
Literature,  Vol.  H,  p.  408,  and  Vol.  HI.,  p.  206.) 

1672. —  28.  Artis  Logicae  Plenior  Institutio  ad  Petri  Kami 
Methodum  concinnata.  System  of  Logic  after  Peter 
Bamus.  (Not  translated.  This  too  had  been  in 
manuscript  many  years  before  publication.) 

1673.  —  29.  Of  True  Religion,  Heresy,  Schism,  Toleration  ; 

and  what  best  Means  may  be  used  against  the 
Growth  of  Popery. 

1674.  —  30.  Epistolarum  Familiarum  Liber  Unus ;  quibus  ac- 

cesserunt  Prolusiones  qusedam  Oratoriae  in  Collegio 
Christi  habitae.  (The  Familiar  Letters,  extending 
from  1625  to  1666,  have  been  translated  by  Mr. 
Fellowes  of  Oxford.  Of  the  "Prolusiones,"  or 
Academical  Essays,  seven  in  number,  no  complete 
translation  has  been  published.  Professor  Masson, 
who  has  found  them  "full  of  biographical  light," 
yet  remarks :  "  I  really  have  found  no  evidence  that 
as  many  as  ten  persons  have  read  them  through 
before  me."  He  has  given  a  full  account  of  these 
Essays,  with  copious  extracts,  in  his  Life  of  Milton, 
Vol.  I.  pp.  204  -  230. ) 

31.  A  Declaration,  or  Letters-Patent,  for  the  Election 
of  this  present  King  of  Poland,  John  the  Third, 
elected  on  the  22nd  of  May  last  past,  A.  D.  1674. 


472    LIST  OF  MILTON'S  PROSE    WORKS. 

Containing  the  Reasons  of  this  Election,  the  great 
Virtues  and  Merits  of  the  said  serene  Elect,  his  emi- 
nent Services  in  War,  especially  in  his  last  great 
Victory  against  the  Turks  and  Tartars,  whereof 
many  particulars  are  here  related,  not  published 
before.  Now  faithfully  translated  from  the  Latin 
copy. 

1676.  —  32.  Literae  Senatus  Anglicani;  necnon  Cromwellii. 
The  Letters  of  State.  These  were  published  in 
the  original  in  1676,  then  translated  into  English, 
and  published  in  1694. 

1682.  — 33.  A  brief  History  of  Moscovia  and  of  other  best- 
known  Countries  lying  eastward  of  Russia  as  far  as 
Cathay ;  gathered  from  the  Writings  of  several 
Eyewitnesses. 

1823.  —  34.  Joannis  Miltoni  Angli  de  Doctrina  Christiana 
ex  sacris  duntaxat  Libris  petita  Disquisitionum  Libri 
duo  posthumia.  The  Christian  Doctrine.  (A  Latin 
MS.  bearing  the  above  title  was  accidentally  dis- 
covered in  1823  by  Mr.  Lemon  in  the  State-Paper 
Office.  It  was  edited  and  afterwards  translated  by 
Rev.  Charles  R.  Sumner,  Bishop  of  Winchester. 
The  Christian  Doctrine  is  generally  supposed  to 
have  been  written  by  Milton  late  in  life;  but  a 
contrary  view  is  ably  maintained  in  an  article  of 
considerable  length  published  in  the  Bibliotheca 
Sacra,  Vol.  XVI.  p.  557,  and  Vol.  XVH.  p.  1.) 

In  addition  to  the  works  above  mentioned,  a  few  fragments 
have  lately  appeared.  It  is  not  likely  that  any  important 
work  of  Milton  remains  now  undiscovered. 


INDEX. 


Abraham,  29. 

Absolute  Monarchy,  279. 

Academics,  153. 

Academies,  Italian,  46. 

Achilles  referred  to,  310. 

Admonition,    minister's    use   of, 
68. 

Advice    cannot    insure    public 
safety,  212. 

Affections,  tyranny  of  blind,  170. 

Amadis  (de  Gaul))  203. 

Amendment   of  old  grievances, 
134. 

Ancestry,  illustrious,  89. 

Angels,  orders  of,  31. 

Anger,  sad,  against  errors,  65. 

Anteros,  148. 

Antichrist,  189. 

Antiochus,  158  —  lifeless  Colos- 
sus of,  68. 

Antiquity,  25,  27. 

Apocalypse  of  John,  49,  253. 

Apollonius  quoted,  307. 

Apostles'  Creed,  150. 

Apostolic  Scriptures,  105. 

Apostate,  Julian  the,  110. 

Appollinarii,  110. 

Arcadia  (Sidney's),  199,  202. 

Areopagitica  mentioned,  326. 

Ariosto,  47. 

Aristotle,  cited  or   noticed,   11, 
48,  176,  197,  266,  271,  278,  289. 

Armada,  Spanish,  22. 

Army,  the  English,  263,  283,  331. 
""    under  Cromwell,  335. 

Arno,  408. 

Arts,  errors  in  teaching,  102. 

Atheists  not  tolerated  by  Parlia- 
ment, 191. 

Athenian  Commonwealth,  385. 

Athenians,  48,  313. 

Athens,  48,  156,  386,  407,  408. 
"      literature  of,  411. 


Author's  allusions  to  himself, 
42-54,  78-83,  258,  296-329, 
409,411-413. 

Author's  birth  and  parentage, 
318. 

Author's  blindness,  305,  306- 
313  — described,  411-413. 

Author's  bodily  stature,  305. 

"       choice  to  defend  liberty 
with  the  pen,  300. 

Author's  choice  to  write  in  Eng- 
lish, 47. 

Author's  early  education,  46. 

"  "      preparation      for 

the  Church,  54. 

Author's  early  studies,  78,  79. 

"        friends,     kindness    of, 
312. 

Author's  gratitude  expressed  for 
divine  goodness,  296. 

Author's  integrity  affirmed,  309. 
"  labors  gratuitous,  328. 
"  "  successful  and 

influential,  301. 

Author's  life  not  licentious,  78. 
"       literary  hopes,  47. 
"       morning  haunts,  78. 
u       opponent,    charges    of, 
304. 

Author's  poetic  promise,  47  — 
hopes,  48. 

Author's  promise  of  a  great  poem, 
53,  74. 

Author's  reasons  for  engaging  in 
controversy,  42. 

Author's  reasons  for  defending 
the  English  people,  258. 

Author's  Studies  in  Christian 
Doctrine,  430  -  432. 

Author's  studies,  early,  46,  78, 
319  —  in  poetry,  79  —  in  ro- 
mances, 81  —  in  philosophy,  82 
—  collegiate  and  at  home,  319. 


474 


INDEX. 


Author's  studies,  later,  323. 

"        visit  to  Italy,  47,  320, 
409. 

Author's  writings  defending  re- 
ligious liberty,  324  —  domes- 
tic, 325  —  on  education,  325  — 
Areopagitica,  326  —  against 
Charles  I.,  327. 

Bacon,  Sir  Francis,  87, 117. 
Bad  books,  use  of,  to  good  men, 

111. 
Bad  man,  the,  a  tyrant,   304  — 

men  dp  not  hate  tyrants,  171 

—  misjudge  the  good,  171. 
Balaam,  13,  73. 

Balak,  239. 

Baptist,  the,  84,  144. 

Basil,  St.,  179. 

Beatrice  and  Laura,  80. 

Belisarius,  49. 

Bembo,  47. 

Bible,  in  the  Reformation,  4  — 
liberal  sciences  taught  from, 
111. 

Bishops  serviceable  to  tyrants, 
239. 

Blessings,  full,  to  be  received,  2, 
18. 

Blindness,  author's,  305,  306  - 
313,  411  -  413  —  historical  ex- 
amples of,  307,  308  —  not  a 
punishment  from  God,  309. 

Books,  care  necessary  concern- 
ing, 107  —  vital  power  of,  108 

—  value  of  good,  108  —  hereti- 
cal, when  first  prohibited,  108 

—  Moses  and  otners  learned  in 
heathen,  110  — Julian  forbade 
heathen,  to   Christians,  110  — 
use  of  bad,  to  good  men,  111  — 
all  manner  of,  to  be  read,  113 

—  public  teaching  by,  121. 
Book-licensing,  origin  of,  108  — 

unjust,  110 — absurd.  113  — 
insults  ingenuous  minds,  115  — 
prevents  freedom  in  teaching, 
116  —  an  indignity  to  dead  au- 
thors, 117  — and  to  the  English 
nation,  118  —  promotes  lifeless 
uniformity,  120  —  shuts  out 
truth,  122  —  cowardice  of,  129 

—  truth  more  likely  than  error 
prohibited  by,  130. 


Bradshaw,  John,  eulogy  of,  329  - 
331. 

Bras,  Lord  Henry  de,  letter  to, 
414. 

Britain,  author's  history  of,  328. 
"  character  of  inhabitants, 
392,  398. 

Britain,  Roman  Empire  in,  390. 

Brutus,  Marcus,  155. 

Buonmattai,  Benedetto,  321  — 
letter  to,  406. 

Burden,  knowledge  a,  39  —  of  in- 
spiration to  the  prophets,  41  — 
of  superstition,  135. 

Burning  (1  Cor.  vii.  9)  ex- 
plained, 145. 

Cales,  222. 

Callimachus,  49. 

Cambridge,  author's  studies  at, 
319. 

Camden,  382. 

Cameron,  168. 

Caracalla,  264. 

Cato,  415. 

Change,  struggle  necessary  in,  38. 

Charity,  law  of  marriage  oppos- 
ing, 136  —  is  to  decide  all 
controversy,  165  —  the  end  of* 
the  Gospel,  165. 

Charlemagne,  49. 

Charles  I.,  reputed  words  of,  in 
Eikon  Basilike,  195 -248,  pas- 
sim —  people  virtually  de- 
posed, 182  —  complaint  of,  con- 
cerning elections,  196  —  devo- 
tions of,  197 — prayers  of,  197 
-  202  —  hypocrisy  of,  202,  208 
—  calling  of  Parliament  by, 
203  —  consent  of,  to  Stafford's 
death,  204  -  207  —  attempt  of, 
to  arrest  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, 207,  224 — conscience 
of,  206,  208,  229,  234  —  dissim- 
ulation of,  208  —  against  tu- 
mults, 209  —  on  a  triennial 
Parliament,  209  —  on  the 
King's  negative,  212  -  217  — 
against  being  subject  to  Par- 
liament, 21&  —  concerning  Ho- 
tham,  217  -  219  —  "  soul  invin- 
cible "  of,  220  —  fear  of  God  by, 
220  —  on  the  civil  war,  221  — 
"justice  of,"  221  — "peace," 


INDEX. 


475 


222  —  "  religion,"    222  —  sus- 

Eected  poisoner  of  his  father 
onored,  223  —  "  chiefestarms  " 
of,  225  —crown  jewels  of,  226 

—  power    claimed     by,    over 
militia,  226  —  power  of  denial 
claimed    by,    230  —  argument 
of,  on    liturgies,   234  —  hated 
and  feared  religious  men,  239 

—  policy  of,  against  them,  239, 

240  —  rebelled     against     law, 

241  —  claimed    power    above 
Parliament,  242  —  "  vows  "  of, 
243  —  were    rejected,    246  — 
fancies  vengeance  on  opposers, 
246  —  sorrow  and  pity  of,  248 

—  slain  by  the  English  people, 
and  why,  256  —  slain  as  a  pub- 
lic enemy.    261  —  army    and 
people    demanded  justice  on, 
263  —  trial     of,      286  -  288  — 
condemned  as  a  tyrant,  289  — 
traitor,    290  —  murderer,    291 

—  author's  works  concerning, 
327  —  charge  of,   to  his  chil- 
dren,    383  —  conduct     likely 
from  the  son  of,  383. 

Charles    Stuart     (aft.    Charles 

II.),  291. 

Charles  V.  (of  Germany),  86. 
Chastity,  excellence  of,  81  -  83 

—  and  love,  82. 
Cheerfulness,  use  of,  in  Christian 

teaching,  84  —  fitting  in  Chris- 
tian duty,  149. 

Christ,  kingship  cannot  be  de- 
rived from,  381  —  meekness  of, 
63  —  ministering,  55  —  only 
head  of  the  Church,  381  — 
praises  to,  73  —  prayer  to,  72 

—  precept     of,     98  — public 
preaching  of,  121  —  sufferings 
and  glory  of,   1  —  vehemence 
of,  64  — 'words  of,  143  —  zeal 
of,  86. 

Christian  thought,  fit  themes  for, 
1  —  cheerfulness,  149  —  liber- 
ty, 234. 

Christianity,  early,  373. 

Christina,  Queen  of  Sweden,  eu- 
logized, 313  -  317. 

Chroniclers,  monkish,  391. 

Chrysippus,  153. 

Church,  allegiance  commanded 


to  none  by  name,  249  —  Christ 
only  head  of,  381  —  civil  help 
harms,  191  —  early  unity  and 
meekness  in,  5  —  Ezekiel's 
temple  a  type  of  Christian,  34 
— government,  reasons  of  to  be 
examined,  29  —  God's  care  in, 
32  —  in  all  churches  original- 
ly the  same,  249  —  history,  use 
of  learning  in,  26  —  harmony 
in,  124  —  kings  not  supreme 
over,  234  —  hate  and  fear  true, 
237  — policy  of,  against,  239  — 
progress  of  corruption  in,  2  — 
reformation  in,  4  —  secular  au- 
thority not  necessary  to,  6  — 
spousals  of,  with  Christ,  163  — 
supplications  for,  20  —  wealth 
in,  365. 

Churchman,  true  office  of,  11  — 
not  to  encroach  on  temporal 
authority,  12. 

Cicero,  cited  or  named,  105,  154, 
161,  267,  410. 

Citizens  of  England,  addressed, 
347-354. 

Claudius,  Appius,  308. 

Clergy,  prelatical  insolence  over, 
6  —  evils  of  hireling,  373. 

Comnenus,  Andronicus,  197. 

Commons  (House  of),  have  juris- 
diction over  a  king,  281. 

Commonwealth  defined,  228  — 
enjoined  by  our  Saviour,  379  — 
like  a  great  Christian  person- 
age, 11  —  tower  of,  377  —  pro- 
tects liberty  of  conscience, 
382  —  fosters  merit,  384  — 
goodly  vessel  of,  17  —  schools 
and  academies  encouraged  by, 
386  —  trade  flourishes  in,  387 
—  folly  of  renouncing  for 
kingship,  387  —  counties  to  be 
a  subordinate,  384  —  stages  of 
corruption  in,  165. 

Commotions,  sectaries  active  in, 
130  —  noble  men  raised  up  in, 
130. 

Communion,  table  of,  6. 

Corruption,  progress  of,  in  the 
Church,  2  —  stages  of,  in  com- 
monwealth, 165  —  in  officers  of 
state,  351. 

Conformity,  outward,  2. 


476 


INDEX. 


Conscience,  forcers  of,  359  — 
God's  secretary,  54  —  liberty 
of,  356  —  protected  by  a  com- 
monwealth, 382  —  rights  of,  in 
interpreting  scripture,  357. 

Constantine,  7,  365. 

Controversial  works,  profit  of 
reading,  405. 

Corporal  punishment  not  proper 
in  religion,  403. 

Council  of  Trent,  109. 

County  a  subordinate  common- 
wealth, 384  —  controversy  in, 
how  settled,  385. 

Craft  in  treaties,  241. 

Graesus,  275. 

Crescentius,  353. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  eulogium  to, 
333  -  347  —  birth  and  early  life 
of,  333  —  in  Parliament,  333  — 
military  exploits  of,  333,  334  — 
memorable  actions  of,  336  — 
dissolves  Parliament,  337  — 
Protectorate  of,  838  —  address 
to,  338  —  warned  against  tyr- 
anny, 340  —  is  counselled  to 
employ  wise  men  in  council, 
342  —  to  leave  the  Church 
free,  345  —  to  foster  education, 

346  —  to  permit   free  discus- 
sion, 346  —  to  hear  any  truth, 

347  —  Protector,     letters     of 
state  from,  to  Duke  of  Savoy, 
420  —  to     United    Provinces, 
422,  425. 

Crown  jewels  of  Charles  I.,  226. 

Curiosity,  in  vain  things,  135. 

Custom,  influence  of,  130  —  asso- 
ciated with  error,  132  —  tyr- 
anny of,  170. 

Cyrus,  13,  30,  334. 

Dandolo,  Doge  of  Venice,  308. 

Daniel,  110. 

Dante  referred  to,  80,  408. 

Darius,  249. 

David,   90,   105,   161,    176,   179, 

205,  217,  246. 
Dawn  of  light  in  British  history, 

389.' 

Decency,  so  called,  in  worship,  4. 
Decrees  of  God  respecting  free 

agents  not  absolute,  examined 

by  laws  of  reason,  440  —  con- 


tingent, maintained,  440  — 
framed  to  permit  human  free- 
dom, 443  —  not  the  cause  of 
divine  foreknowledge,  447. 

Defence  (Milton's)  of  the  people 
of  England,  referred  to,  297, 
301,  309,  313,  329. 

Definition,  165. 

Delphi,  oracle  of,  310. 

Demophoon,  177. 

Deodati,  John,  323. 

Desborough,  344. 

Dillon,  "  a  traitor,"  291. 

Dion,  177. 

Discipline,  nurse  of  truth,  26  — 
importance  of,  30  —  the  image 
of  virtue,  31  — in  the  Church 
divinely  ordained,  31 — gifc.s 
required  in  framing,  32  —  re- 
lation of  to  preaching,  32  — 
set  forth  by  Paul,  34. 

Disloyalty,  divine  punishment 
of,  23. 

Dissent  not  to  be  persecuted, 
402. 

Divines,  time-serving,  186,  395  — 
subprelatical  faction  of,  188  — 
judgment  of  Protestant,  on  ty- 
rannicide, 188. 

Divorce,  when  permissible,   142 

—  better  than  hate,  147  —  al- 
lowance of,   approves,  155  — 
for  frigidity,  163  —  Moses  lim- 
its not,   167  —  author's  works 
on,  noticed,  325. 

Doctrine,  nurse  of  truth,  26  — 
use  of,  against  ignorance,  58 

—  primitive    purity   in,   40  — 
author's  studies  in  Christian, 
430-432. 

Dramatic     constitutions,    49. 
Dudley,  Duke,  223. 

Ecclesiasticus,  150. 

Education,  100-106 — bad  sys- 
tems of,  101  —  evil  results  in, 
102  —  better  way  of,  103  —  a 
complete,  104  —  author's  work 
on,  noticed,  326. 

Edward   VI.  223. 

"       St.,  law  of,  cited,  287. 

Ehud,  181. 

Eikonoklastes  mentioned,  329. 

Elegance  in  language,  407. 


INDEX. 


477 


Eli,  156. 

Klisha,  448. 

Elijah,  87,  201. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  382. 

Eloquence,  daughter  of  virtue, 
28  — best,  nearest  nature,  77  — 
the  hearty  love  of  truth,  98  — 
flourishes  with  great  acts,  389 
— just  conquerors  honor,  390  — 
declines  with  civil  virtue,  390. 

Enemies,  force  to  be  used  against 
domestic,  274. 

England  and  Scotland,  natives 
in,  addressed,  15  —  liberty  of 
speech  lost  in,  66  —  reforms  in, 
70  —  God's  favor  to,  70  —  signs 
of  new  reformation  in,  124. 

England,  citizens  of,  addressed, 
347-354. 

English  army,  263,  283,  331- 
333,  335. 

English  language,  why  chosen  by 
the  author,  48. 

English  nation,  indignity  of  li- 
censing to,  118  —  blessings  of 
God  to,  recounted,  294. 

English  people,  appeal  to,  293  — 
fortitude  and  sobriety  of,  299. 

Englishmen,  124. 

Epaminondas,  161,  334. 

Ephori,  277,  278. 

Epic  poems,  48. 

Episcopacy,  permitted  in  God's 
wrath,  34  —  source  of  schism, 
34  —  arguments  for,  examined, 
69. 

Episcopal  war  of  Charles  L,  323. 

Error,  united  with  custom,  133. 

Esdras,  249. 

Eternal  generation,  doctrine  of, 
examined,  451. 

Euripides,  49,  177,  277,  298,  312. 

Ensebius,  35. 

Evangelists,  105. 

Evil  mingled  with  good,  111  — 
knowledge  of,  joined  with  that 
of  good,  112  — restraint  of,  not 
always  wise,  114. 

Evil  doers  harm  themselves 
most,  232. 

Excommunication  touches  not 
property  nor  life,  18  —  true 
method  and  purpose  of,  19, 
60. 


Exercise,  faith  and  knowledge 

grow  by,  119. 

Expurging  Indexes,  66,  109. 
Extremes,  sudden,  17. 
Ezekiel,  cited,  403  —  temple  of, 

34  —  visions  of,  85,  132. 

Fabius,  410  —  Maximus,  156. 

Faesolse,  409. 

Fairfax,  eulogy  of,  335. 

Falsehood  colored,  like  truth,  by 
feelings,  56. 

Fathers,  the  Church,  9,  26,  27, 
54. 

Fear  in  worship,  8  —  in  religion 
towards  magistrates,  360. 

Feelings  color  truth,  55. 

Fines  for  heresy  not  permissible, 
403. 

Flanders,  les  Gueux  in,  368. 

Fleetwood,  343. 

Florence,  author's  visit  to,  320, 
322. 

Force,  lawful  against  domestic 
enemies,  274  —  and  hire,  harm 
of,  to  the  Church,  855  — 
against  conscience,  wrong,  359. 

Forefathers,  deeds  of,  against 
tyranny,  211. 

Formality  in  worship,  3. 

Free  agents,  acts  of,  not  decreed 
absolutely,  438. 

Free  people,  hereditary  right 
over,  379. 

Free  writing,  permission  of,  good 
for  the  state,  67. 

Freedom,  truly  loved  only  by 
good  men,  170,  —  nature  of, 
353  —  in  what  consisting,  381 
—  of  speech  in  things  of  relig- 
ion, 405. 

French  people,  302. 

Frigidity,  divorce  for,  163. 

Fulvius  and  Rupilius,  275. 

Gehazi's  leprosy,  19. 
Generation  of  the  Son  of  God  by 

the  Father,  450  -  545. 
Genesis,  a  prologue  to  laws  of 

Moses,  29. 

Geneva,  author's  visit  to,  323. 
Germans,  301. 
Germany,  387. 
Gluttony,  114. 


478 


INDEX. 


God,  appealed  to,  308,  309  — 
cares  for  civil  affairs,  268  — 
check  of,  on  custom  and  error, 
133  —  popular  impulses  from, 
257  —  knowledge  of,  100  —  not 
confined  to  place  or  mode,  131 
recreations  of,  162  —  ways  of. 
equal,  158  —  will  prepare  and 
send  ministers,  75  —  wisdom 
of,  162  —  decrees  of,  see  De- 
crees —  the  Father,  generation 
of  the  Son  by,  450  —  not  eter- 
nal, 451  —  not  necessary,  454 

—  in  time,  455  —  the  only  true 
God,  455  —  author  of  regenera- 
tion, 459  —  foreknowledge  of, 
444  —  not  caused  by  decrees, 
447  —  does  not  impose  necessi- 
ty,   448  — will  of,    the    First 
Cause,  447. 

Godfrey  (of  Boulogne),  49. 

Good  and  evil  mingled,  111  — 
known  by  evil,  112  — men  only 
love  freedom,  170  —  misjudged 
by  the  bad,  171. 

Gospel,  civil  interference  abol- 
ishes, 361  —  great  command 
of,  185'  —  mystery  of,  55  — 
preachers  of,  367. 

Government,  talents  needed  in, 
9  —  false  teachings  in,  10  — 
origin  and  object  of,  173  —  re- 
quires knowledge  of  the  limits 
of  liberty,  135  —  form  of,  left 
to  each  nation,  267  —  kingly, 
174  —  of  the  Church,  29,  32 

—  of  all    churches  originally 
the  same,  249. 

Grace,  the  door  of,  38. 
Grammatical   labors,  value   of, 

406. 
Gravity  in  Christian  teaching, 

84. 

Great,  men  and  things  truly,  313. 
Greece,  literature  ofj  411. 
Greek  poets,  quoted  by    Paul, 

110. 

Greeks,  180,  298. 
Grotius,  320. 
"  Gueux,  les,"  868. 
Guion,  112. 

Happiness  of  a  nation,  in  what 
consisting,  243. 


Harmony  in  the  Church,  124. 

Hate,  enters  in  ill-assorted  mar- 
riages, 147  —  divorce  better 
than,  147  —  natural,  efficacy 
of,  150 —  the  mightiest  disor- 
der, 159  —  marriage  cannot 
bind,  160. 

Hawley,  344. 

Hazael,  448. 

Heathen,  testimony  to  God's  jus- 
tice, 153 — views  of  divine 
punishment,  154  —  prayers 
used  by  Charles  I.,  199. 

Hebraisms  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 169. 

Hebrews,  poets  among,  48. 

Helps  to  understand  Scripture, 
371. 

Hercules,  180. 

Heresy,  increased  by  Episcopacy, 
34. 

Heretic  in  the  truth,  described, 
119  —  who  is  the,  357. 

Heresy  in  New  Testament  times, 
436. 

Hezekiah,  161,  246,  438. 

Hire,  and  force,  in  the  Church, 
355  —  dangerous  to  the  Church, 
362  —  not  in  itself  unlawful, 
364  —  excessive  evil  of,  365. 

Hirelings,  364,  366— Judas  the 
first,  365  —  how  diminished, 
372. 

Historical  composition,  416. 

Holstein,  Luke,  321. 

Homer  cited  or  noticed,  48,  81, 
106,  150,  153,  310. 

Horace  cited,  88,  166. 

Hotham  cited,  217. 

Huss,  108,  367. 

Ignatius,  fragmentary  writings 
of,  26. 

Ignorance,  how  cured  by  the 
minister,  58. 

Ilissus,  408. 

Immanuel,  Duke  of  Savoy,  letter 
to,  420  —  on  the  edict  of,  422. 

Independents,  consistency  of, 
285  —  words  of  Salmasius  con- 
cerning, 285 — growth  of,  327. 

Indexes,  Expurgatorious,  66, 109. 

Indifference,  93. 

Inquisition,  Spanish,  109. 


INDEX. 


Inspiration   the    burden   of  the 

prophets,  41. 
Invocation,  to  the  Divine  Trinity, 

20— to   Christ,  72  — to  God, 

258. 
lo,  10. 

Ireland,  336. 
Isaac,  308. 
Isis,  123. 

Israelites,  13,  34,  238,  274,  293. 
Italian  language,  409. 
Italians,  302. 
Italy,  35,  48  —  academies  in,  46 

—  commonwealths  of,  887. 
Itinerary  preaching,  387. 

Jacob,  243,  308. 

James  I.,  224. 

James,  temple  of,  129. 

Jeremiah,  41, 42. 

Jerome,  141. 

Jesuits,  English,  322. 

Jews,  laws  of,  29  — at  Christ's 
time,  144  —  slew  tyrants,  181. 

Job,  Book  of,  48. 

John,  apocalypse  of,  cited  or  no- 
ticed, 31,  41,  49,  86, 253. 

Jonah,  439. 

Josephus  cited,  29,  249. 

Josiah,  439. 

Judas,  365. 

Judgment  of  nations,  23. 

Julian  the  Apostate,  110. 

Juno,  10, 109. 

Justice  may  not  compromise  with 
sin,  157  —  the  sword  of  God, 
172  —  to  be  executed  on  the 
tyrant,  172  —  strongest  of  all 
things,  250. 

Justinian,  Code  of,  177. 

King,  accountable  to  law,  175 

—  blessings  expected  from  re- 
jecting,  184  —  checks    to  the 
power  of,  175  —  Commons  have 
jurisdiction  over,  282 — differ- 
ent from  a    tyrant,  302  —  ex- 
cels not  other  men  by  nature, 
232  —  hates    and    fears    true 
Church,  237  —  law  superior  to, 
277  —  likened  to  Samson,  61  — 
may  not  do  as  he  pleases,  264, 
303  — negative    of,    212  — not 
supreme  over  the  Church,  234 


—  Parliament  may  limit,   231 

—  People  and  Senate  superior 
to,  279  —  policy  of,  against  the 
Church,  239  —  relations  of,  to 
Parliament,  212  -  216,  225  -  229 

—  to    subject,    181 — tyrants 
often  subvert,  303  —  unlimited 
power  of,  injurious,  268. 

Kingship,  many  wish  return  to, 

376  —  evils    of   returning    to, 

377  -  379  —  not   derived    from 
Christ,  381  —  does  not  protect 
liberty  of  conscience,  382. 

Knighthood,  English,  15  —  oath 
of,  81. 

Knowledge  a  burden,  39  —  of  re- 
ligion easy,  367. 

Knox,  John,  117. 

Lacedaemonians,     kingdom     of, 

279. 

Laertius,  105. 

Laity,  prelatical  insolence  over,  6. 
Lambert,  344. 
'Language,    elegance    in,  407  — 

Tuscan,  408  —  Italian,  409  — 

Latin,  410. 
Languages,  use  of  learning,  100 

—  mistakes  in  teaching,  101 

—  best    mode    of    learning, 
102. 

Latin,  religious  controversies  to 
be  permitted  in,  405  —  author's 
use  of,  410. 

Laughter,  use  of,  hi  refuting  er- 
ror, 65,  87. 

Laurence,  344. 

Law,  cannot  limit  sin,  167  —  per- 
mit sin,  168 — remit  its  vigor, 
151,  167  —  dissolved  by  Christ 
into  charity,  162  —  faithfulness 
of,  157  —  God's  revealed  will, 
152 — may  not  covenant  with 
sin,  151, 157  — some  have  best 
kept  by  transgression,  161  — 
superior  to  king,  216,  266. 

Lawgivers,  eminent,  claimed  Di- 
vine inspiration,  32. 

Laws,  a  check  on  authority,  174 

—  in  the  hands  of  Parliament, 
227  —  the  locks  of  Samson,  61 

—  of  God  and  of  Nature  agree, 
268  —  reasons  of,  to  be  pub- 
lished   with    them,    28  —  set 


480 


INDEX. 


above  magistrates,  175  —  supe- 
rior to  kings,  216,  266. 

Learning,  revival  of,  in  Reforma- 
tion, 5  —  end  and  method  of, 
100. 

Legislative  power  wisely  sepa- 
rated from  executive,  214. 

Leo  X.,  108. 

Liberty,  Christian,  depends  not 
on  a  king,  234  —  civil  limits  of, 
107  — double  edge  of,  398  — 
few  truly  desire,  265  —  harm- 
ful to  bad  men,  398  —  in  Swit- 
zerland, 418  —  national,  12  — 
of  man  independent  of  Divine 
necessity,  444  —  of  speaking 
lost  in  England,  66  —  religion 
and,  knit  together,  90  —  re- 
stored to  English  nation,  298  — 
those  unworthy  of,  ungrateful, 
352  —  worth  of,  67. 

License,  allowed  by  tyrants,  170. 

Licentiousness,  author's  denial 
of,  78-83. 

Liturgies,  3,  197,  234,  237. 

Logic  and  metaphysics,  teaching 
of,  102. 

London,  references  to,  124,  284, 
318,  411. 

Loneliness  of  man,  God's  pro- 
vision against,  163  —  marriage 
a  help  against,  143. 

Love,  and  Anteros,  148  —  hidden 
efficacy  of,  150  —  in  marriage 
to  be  mutual,  149  —  of  God 
and  man  a  motive,  100  —  ori- 
gin of  fall  of  Plato,  account 
of  Moses,  146  —  true,  and 
chastity,  82. 

Low  Countries,  387. 

Luther,  86.  367. 

Luxury,  Lydians  enslaved  by, 
13. 

Lycurgus,  32,  277,  278. 

Lydians,  13. 

Lyons,  poor  men  of,  368. 

Lyric  poesy,  49. 

Magistracy,  a  divine  ordinance, 

267  —  form   of,    discretionary, 

267. 
Magistrate,  duty  of,  17  —  should 

not  compel  the  maintenance 

of  ministers,  372. 


Magna  Charta,  227. 

Magus,  Simon,  19,  365. 

Malice,  treatment  of,  by  the  min- 
ister, 58. 

Manilius,  153. 

Marginal  stuffings,  men  learned 
in,  53. 

Mariso,  John  Baptiste,  321. 

Marriage,  a  covenant,  148  —  de- 
signed for  man's  solace,  140  — 
evils  in,  not  chargeable  on  God, 
158  — hate  in,  147  — a  help 
against  loneliness,  143 — law 
of,  against  charity,  136  —  make 
it  miserable,  140  —  needs  to  be 
new  examined,  137  —  love  in, 
must  be  mutual,  149  —  once 
in  disgrace,  afterward  held  a 
sacrament,  141  —  the  remedy 
of  solitude,  146  —  when  not 
true,  145. 

Marston  Moor,  battle  of,  344. 

Martin  V.,  108. 

Martyrs,  5 —  deriding  persecu- 
tors, 87. 

Medea,  155. 

Meekness,  spirit  of,  necessary  to 
receive  instruction,  77. 

Men,  naturally  born  free,  173  — 
leagues  of,  to  prevent  injury, 
173  —  made  in  God's  image 
and  free,  266. 

Metellus  Csecilius,  308. 

Micaiah,  130. 

Militia,  power  over,  226. 

Ministers,  aid  afforded  by,  to 
magistrates,  17  —  duty  of,  16 
—  early,  distinguished  by 
sanctity,  373  —  evils  of  wealth 
to,  98  —  God's  inward  calling 
makes,  75  —  God  will  raise  up, 
75  —  in  the  cure  of  souls,  57  — 
evils  to  be  met  by,  58  —  reme- 
dies of,  59,  60  —  maintenance 
of,  363,  367  —  people  competent 
to  judge  of,  96-98  —  recom- 
pense of,  366. 

Minos,  32. 

"  Mirror,  The,"  an  old  book  re- 
ferred to,  280. 

Miseries  of  men  chargeable  on 
themselves,  139. 

Monarchy,  absolute,  279  —  why 
defended  by  good  men,  274. 


INDEX. 


481 


Monkish  chroniclers,  48,  391. 

Montacute,  344. 

Montfort,  Simon  de,  193. 

Morus,  (Alex.  More,  supposed 
author  of  the  anonymous  libel,) 
322,  329. 

Moses,  cited  or  referred  to,  29, 
32,  110,  126,  139,  146,  438  — 
law  of,  29,  138,  139,  141,  142, 
145,  167,  176,  177,  178,  326. 

Music,  use  of,  in  education,  105 

—  power  of,  106. 

Naples,  author's  visit  to,  321. 

Nation,  a  noble  and  puissant, 
128  —  triumphs  most  honora- 
ble to  a,  349  —  happiness  of, 
in  what  consisting,  243. 

Nations,  judgment  of,  23 — un- 
worthy of  liberty,  conduct  of, 
352. 

Nature    imposes  not  kings,  265 

—  zodiac  of,  169. 
Necessity,  Divine,  in  relation  to 

free  agency,  441  -  444. 
Nero,  224,  290. 
New  Jerusalem,  31,  69. 
New  Testament,  idiom  of  the, 

169. 

Nicetas,  197. 
Nimrod,  253. 
Nomentanus,  353. 
Numa,  32. 

Ocnus,  160. 

Odes  and  hymns,  49. 

(Edipus,  41. 

Opinions,  numerous,  in  active 
times,  125. 

Opponent,  author's,  ridiculed, 
260,  276,  306. 

Opportunity  in  religion,  38. 

Opposition  to  truth  may  be  ex- 
pected, 143. 

Oratory,  a  vehement  vein  in,  83. 

Ordination,  right  of,  5  —  a  mere 
symbol,  74. 

Origen,  49. 

Ormond,  James,  Earl  of,  190. 

Orpheus,  104,  266. 

Osiris,  122. 

Overton,  344. 

Palmerin,  203. 

21 


Pandora,  153. 

Papists,  190,  358,  359. 

Pareus,  49. 

Parliament,  ancient  laws  con- 
cerning, 210  —  legislative  pow- 
er of,  227,  242  —  may  limit 
kingly  power,  231  —  peers  of 
king  in,  280  —  relations  of,  to 
king,  212-216,  225-229,  230 
-231— triennial  bill  for,  209 

—  Long,  praise  of,    15,    88  — 
time  of,    the  jubilee    of   the 
state,  66  —  ancestry  of,  89  — 
education  of,    90  —  labors  of, 
for  civil  liberty,  91  —  against 
ecclesiastical    tyranny,    92  — 
gave  liberty  to  the  people,  92,. 
93  —  overawed  king's   armies, 

93  —  permanent  sitting  of,  93, 

94  —  affability    of,     94  — God 
honors,  95  —  action  of,  without 
precedent,  justified,  186  — has 
not  countenanced  popery,  190 

—  defended  true  religion,  190 

—  why  called  by   Charles  I., 
203  —  did  not  repent  judgment 
against     Strafford,     207  —  at- 
tempt to   arrest   members   of,. 
207,  224  —  king's  trial  by,  288 

—  vigor     of,      323  —  wisdom 
wanting  in,  392  —  evil  acts  of, 
393,  394  —  state  of  religion  un- 
der, 395  —  corrupted  the  peo- 
ple, 397. 

Parliaments,  Cromwell  dissolves, 

337,  338. 

"  Parricide  "  of  Charles  I.,  259. 
Patriotism,  rewards  of,  23. 
Patriots,  training  of  children  for, 

104. 
Paul,  cited  or  mentioned,  25,  34, 

36,  38,  83,  110,  134,  145,  147, 

190,  197,  199,204,267,373,  404, 

437,  440. 
Peace,  restored,  dangers  of,  348 

—  in  Switzerland,  419. 

Peers  of  the  King  in  Parliament, 
280. 

People,  civil  idolatry  by,  193  — 
competent  to  judge  of  a  minis- 
ter, 96-98  —  English,  idolized 
Charles  I.,  193  —  may  choose 
or  reject  a  king,  178  —  may 
slay  a  tyrant,  180  —  power 


482 


INDEX. 


of,  to  change  their  government, 
184. 

Peripatetics,  155. 

Perkin  Warbeck,  260. 

Persuasion  to  obedience,  28. 

Petition,  nature  and  right  of, 
230,  231. 

Petrarch,  referred  to,  80, 408. 

Pharaoh,  238. 

Philaras,  Leonard,  letter  to, 
411. 

Philistine  forges,  119. 

Philo  Judsens,  161. 

Philosophy,  author's  studies  in, 
82. 

Phineas,  412. 

Pickering,  344. 

Piedmont,  sufferings  of  Protes- 
tants in,  420,  427. 

Piety,  necessary  to  a  nation, 
348. 

Pilate,  152,  156. 

Pindar,  49,  266. 

Pius  IV.,  239. 

Plantagenet,  Thomas,  193. 

Plato  cited,  28,  58,  82,  105,  113, 
146,  153,  155,  266,  277,  278, 
407. 

Pliny,  97. 

Plutarch,  105. 

Poetasters,  libidinous  and  igno- 
rant, 51. 

Poetic  abilities  the  gift  of  God, 
50  —  use  and  abuse  of,  50, 
51. 

Poets,  smooth  elegiac,  79  —  chief 
glory  of,  79  —  ascribe  pious 
words  to  tyrants,  198. 

Policy,  governmental,  false 
teaching  and  corruption  in,  9, 
10  —  wisest,  349. 

Politician,  the  modern,  10. 

Pompey,  155,  275. 

Pope's  claim  of  political  power, 
402. 

Popery,  how  to  remove  and  hin- 
der, 403  —  idolatry  of,  to  be  re- 
moved, 404  —  not  tolerable, 
402  —  Parliament  has  not 
countenanced,  190  —  twofold 
power  of,  402. 

Popilius,  158. 

Praise  to  God,  14,  21,  70  — to 
Christ,  72. 


Prayer,  to  Christ,  73,  74  — 
Lord's,  236  —  set  forms  of,  234 

—  tyranny  in  prescribing,  235 

—  voluntary,  234  -  237. 
Preaching,  itiuerarv,  369  -  372  — 

public,  32  — of  Christ,  121. 

Predestination,  440. 

Prelates,  insolence  and  usurpa- 
tion of,  6  —  abuse  Sabbath,  13 

—  flatter  kings,  61  —  acts   of 
Parliament      against,       92  — 
beasts  of  Amalec,  220. 

Prelatical  Episcopacy,  author's 
work  on,  327. 

Prelatv,  does  not  prevent  schism, 
35  —  palsy  of,  36  —  wholly 
evil,  62  —  defenders  of,  to  be 
rebuked  sharply,  63. 

Presbyterian  Reformation,  382. 

Presbyterians,  correspond  with 
Koyalists,  284 — jealous  of  In- 
dependents, 327. 

Presbyters  in  Scotland,  374. 

Presbytery,  Charles  I.  opposed, 
383. 

Priests,  emulous  of  kingly  pow- 
er, 14  —  not  to  minister,  sor- 
rowing, 149. 

Princes  disguised,  66. 

Proairesis,  105. 

Prometheus,  271. 

Prophets,  inspiration  a  burden 
to,  41  —  zeal  of  ancient,  86. 

Protestants,  principles  of,  356, 
357,  381  —  tyranny  and  incon- 
sistency in,  359  —  war  among, 
deprecated,  426,  427. 

Proverbs,  77. 

Providence,  unsearchable  mys- 
teries of,  247. 

Public  faith,  violated  by  Parlia- 
ment, 394  —  preaching,  32  — 
of  Christ,  121  —  teaching  by 
books,  121. 

Punic  War,  156. 

Pure  life  necessary  to  a  great 
poet,  80. 

Puritans,  286. 

Psyche,  111. 

Pyrrhus,  125,  308. 

Queen  Elizabeth,  382. 
Queen  of  Sweden,  313. 
Queen  Truth,  329. 


INDEX. 


483 


Reason  of  Church  Government, 
author's,  referred  to,  324. 

Recreations  should  be  cared  for 
by  magistrates,  51  —  necessa- 
ry, 162  —  how  best  attained, 
163  —  of  God,  162. 

Reformation,  4,  69  —  errors  in, 
soon  amended,  38  —  morning 
beam  of,  71  —  in  England,  70 

—  author's  work  on,  324. 
Regal,    different    from    paternal 

power,  260. 

Regeneration,  458  -  465  —  God 
the  author  of,  458  —  agents  of, 
459,  460  — object  of,  460,  461 

—  in  God's  image,  460  —  ex- 
ternal cause  of,  464. 

Regicides,  wisdom  of,  268. 

Rehoboam,  179.    • 

Relations  of  King  and  Parlia- 
ment, 212-216,  225-229,  230, 
231  —  of  king  and  subject, 
181. 

Religion  and  liberty  knit  togeth- 
er, 90 — author's  training  in 
Christian,  82  —  by  proxy  de- 
scribed, 19,  20  —  knowledge  of 
Christian,  easy,  367  —  matters 
of,  355  —  opportunity  in,  38  — 
permits  vehement  oratory,  84 

—  real   subverters    of,    189  — 
rule  of,  given    in    Scripture, 
401. 

Remonstrances    to    Charles    I., 

216. 

Rentius  (Rienzi),  Nicholas,  353. 
Repentance  the  aim  of  discipline, 

60. 

Reproof,  58. 
Restraint,  requires  knowledge  of 

limits  of  liberty,  135. 
Revolution,  English,  sobriety  of, 

299. 

Rh<$,  Isle  of,  222. 
Richard  II.,  211  —  III.,  198. 
Riches,  evil  of,  to  ministers,  98. 
Rienzi  (Rentius),  Tribune,  353  — 
Robert  de  Vere,  211  —  Rochelle, 

222. 
Romances,  author's  reading  of, 

81  —  several  mentioned,  202. 
Romans,  48,  125,  127,  180,  275, 

298,  353. 
Roman  slaves,  66. 


Rome,  128,  321,  322,  408. 
Rubbish  from  work,  38. 
Rupert  (Prince),  244. 

Sabbath,  abuse  of,  13. 

Salamis,  sea  fight  of,  166. 

Sallust,  414-416. 

Salmasius,  cited,  259,  265,  269, 
270,  271,  272,  273,  276,  277, 283, 
285,  291  —  Latin  of,  ridiculed, 
260  —  arguments  of,  from  law 
of  nations,  266  —  from  nature, 
269  —  greater  arguments  of, 
276  —  on  the  Independents, 
285,286  —  on  the  King's  trial, 
286  —  work  of,  dictated  by 
Charles  Stuart,  291  —  author's 
reply  to,  mentioned,  329  — 
success  of,  reply  to,  297  —  cha- 
grin of,  at  defeat,  297,  313  — 
disfavor  of,  with  the  Queen  of 
Sweden,  314. 

Samson,  King  likened  to,  61. 

Samuel,  179. 

Sanctification,  effected  by  the 
Father  and  by  the  Son,  463  - 
465  —  external  cause  of,  464 
—  attributed  to  faith,  465. 

Saul,  217,  220,  233. 

Saviour,  our,  1,  84,  135, 137,  206, 
308,  379. 

Savoy,  sufferings  of  Protestants 
in,  420,  422,  427. 

Schism,  not  prevented  by  pre- 
laty,  35  —  terrors  of,  125,  126. 

Schools  in  a  Commonwealth, 
386. 

Scipio,  30,  70,  335. 

Scotch  war,  344. 

Scotland,  nobles  and  people  of, 
commended,  15  —  apostro- 
phized, 15,  16  —  war  with, 
283,  323,  336,  344  —  danger  of 
losing,  378. 

Scots,  283,  290,  323,  336. 

Scriptures,  alleged  difficulty  of, 
7  —  authority  of,  superior  to 
that  of  the  Church,  357  —  dis- 
cussions on,  allowable,  358  — 
freedom  of  conscience  in  in- 
terpreting, 358  —  ground  of 
faith,  356  — helps  to  under- 
standing of,  371  —  measure  of 
truth,  68  —  plainness  of,  8  — 


484 


INDEX. 


studies  of  youth  in,  105  — 
sufficiency  of,  25. 

Scudamore,  Thomas,  320. 

Sechemites,  15. 

Sectaries,  busy  in  times  of  com- 
motion, 130  —  men  of  true  re- 
ligion called,  194. 

Sects,  try  faith,  36  —  hinder  not 
reformation,  37  —  groundless 
fear  of,  125  -  129. 

Seducement,  how  hindered,  360. 

Selden,  Hebrew  Wife  by,  326. 

Self-preservation,  227. 

Self-reverence,  restraining  pow- 
er of,  56  —  author's,  80. 

Seneca,  88,  180. 

Service,  God's  honor  on,  65. 

Severity,  allowable  in  defending 
sound  doctrine,  64. 

Shakespeare,  quoted,  198. 

Sidney's  (Sir  Philip),  Arcadia, 
199. 

Simon  de  Montfort,  193. 

Simon  Magus,  19,  365. 

Simplicitv  in  God's  great  works, 
55. 

Sin,  always  exists  in  excess,  167 
—  an  outlaw,  162  —  expelled 
only  with  virtue,  116  —  not  re- 
moved with  its  occasion,  114  — 
not  to  be  limited  by  law,  166- 
169  —  punished  with  sin,  164. 

Slavery  a  sacrilege,  266. 

Smectymnuus,  author's  Apology 
for,  noticed,  325. 

Societies,  civil,  object  of,  260. 

Socrates,  146. 

Solomon,  37,  52,  64,  87,  105,  163. 

Solon,  161. 

Song  of  Solomon,  a  pastoral  dra- 
ma, 49  —  a  figure  of  Christ  and 
the  Church,  163. 

Songs  in  the  Law  and  Prophets, 
49. 

Son  of  God,  eternal  generation 
of,  considered,  450  -  464  —  not 
coessential  with  the  Father, 
464  —  testifies  to  the  Father's 
unity,  465  —  receives  name 
and  attributes  from  the  Fa- 
ther, 457  —  equality  of,  with 
God,  no  robbery,  467  —  faith 
of  saints  respecting,  458. 

Sophocles,  41,  49. 


Soul,  ministers  care  of  the,  57  - 
61  —  distemper  of,  59. 

Spain,  35 — king  of,  alluded  to, 
22,  428. 

Spaniards,  302,  426,  427,  428. 

Spanish  Armada,  22  —  inquisi- 
tion, 109. 

Spenser,  112. 

Sphinx,  215. 

Sports  and  pastimes,  fit  subjects 
of  legislation,  51. 

Statesmen,  wise,  worthy  of  high- 
est praise,  406. 

Stoics,  153. 

Stories  of  the  Church,  use  of, 
26. 

Strafford  (Thos.  Wentworth,  Earl 
of),  consent  of  Charles  I.  to  his 
death,  204. 

Strickland,  344. 

Subjects,  relations  of,  to  king, 
181. 

Success,  confirms  a  good  cause, 
254. 

Sun  ripens  wits,  399. 

Superstition,  guardian  of  tyran- 
ny, 92  —  burden  of,  135  —  of 
the  Papist,  136 — of  imagina- 
ry sins,  136,  159. 

Sweden,  queen  of,  eulogized,  813 
-317  — troubles  of  United 
Provinces  with,  426. 

Switzerland,  king  of,  428  —  let- 
ters to  Senators  of,  417  —  can- 
tons of,  427. 

Sydenham,  344. 

Sydney,  344. 

Tacitus,  414. 

Tasso,  48,  321. 

Teachers,  Christian,  differ  in  na- 
ture, 84. 

Teaching,  errors  in,  101,  102  — 
public,  by  books,  121. 

Temperance,  Spenser's  allegory 
of,  112. 

Temple,  measured  by  God,  33  — 
of  Ezekiel  a  type  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  34 — rubbish  in 
building,  126  —  of  Janus,  129. 

Tenure  of  kings  and  magistrates, 
author's  reference  to,  327. 

Tertullian,  141. 

Themistocles,  156. 


INDEX. 


485 


Theodosius  the  younger  177. 

Theology,  Treatises  of  43"  —  de- 
fects in,  432  —  freedom  of  dis- 
cussion concerning,  434,  435. 

Theseus,  277. 

Thetis,  son  of,»310. 

Tiber,  408. 

Time,  the  midwife  of  truth,  134 

—  toiling  shoulders  of,  26. 
Timoleon,  307. 

Tiresias,  41,  307. 

Tithes,  law  of,  not  binding  under 
the  Gospel,  367. 

Toleration  of  religious  opinions, 
484. 

Trade  nourishes  in  common- 
wealths, 387  —  interests  of,  in- 
ferior to  religion  and  liberty, 
387. 

Trajan,  177. 

Travel,  414. 

Treaties,  craft  in,  241. 

Trent,  239  —  Council  of,  109. 

Trinity,  invocation  to,  20. 

Triptolemus,  302. 

Truth  causes  dissension,  40  — 
colored  by  feelings,  55  — 
daughter  of  Heaven,  26  —  dan- 
ger of  prohibiting  by  licensing, 
130  —  a  flowing  fountain,  119 

—  gains    by     contest,     129  — 
gem  of,  67  —  given  freely,  40  — 
given  us  to  gain  further  truth, 
123  —  heretics   in,    119  —  im- 
possible to  be  soiled,   134  — 
licensing  shuts  out,  122  —  lik- 
ened  to     Osiris,    122  —  never 
fully    attained,     123  —  nurses 
of,  doctrine  and  discipline,  26 

—  opposition  to,  at  first,  143  — 
plainness  of,  8  —  preciousness 
of,  40,  122  —  Queen  Truth,  329 

—  the  richest  merchandise,  122 

—  robe  of,  26  —  Scripture  the 
measure   of,   68  —  should  not 
be   bound,  129  —  strength    of, 
124,  250  —  time  the  midwife  of, 
134. 

"  Truths  Manifest,"  author  of, 
quoted,  224. 

Tuscan  language,  408. 

Typhon,  122. 

Tyrannicide,  right  of,  180  —  ex- 
amples of,  180,  181  — judg- 


ment of  Protestant  divines  con- 
cerning, 188  —  resisted  by  Par- 
liament, 91,  92. 

Tyranny  of  custom  and  affec- 
tions, 170. 

Tyrants,  abject  slav.es,  304  — 
bad  men  hate  not,  171  —  bish- 
ops serviceable  to,  239  —  de- 
nned, 179,  289  —  deposing  law- 
ful, 261,  262— differ  from 
kings,  302  —  hypocrisy  of, 
197  — justice  to  be  inflicted 
on,  172— mischiefs  of,  180  — 
punishment  of,  agreeable  to 
nature,  269. 

Ulysses,  106. 

Unchastity  in  man,  deep  dishon- 
or of,  83. 
United  Provinces,  377,  385,  418 

—  letter  to,  concerning  perse- 
cutions in   Savoy,  422  —  con- 
cerning   their   trouble     with 
Sweden,  425. 

Universities,  English,  reference 

to,  90. 
Uzziah,  233. 

Vaudois,  persecutions  of,  420- 

425. 
Vehemence    of  Christ,    against 

opponents,  64  —  in  oratory,  83 

—  examples  of,  84. 
Venice,  author's  visit  to,  322. 
Virgil,  48. 

Virtue,  the  charming  cup  of  true 
love,  82  —  a  cloistered,  112  — 
confirmed  value  of,  116  —  not 
a  drudgery,  158  —  strengthen- 
ed by  trial,  112  —  to  be  taught. 
104. 

Warriors,  just,  honor  eloquence, 
390. 

Wars,  civil,  men  ready  for  at 
first,  171 — wasting  and  ruin- 
ing, 389. 

Wealth,  in  the  Church,  365. 

Whitlocke,  344. 

Wickliffe,  71,  108. 

Wisdom,  call  of,  52  —  the  Eter- 
nal, 162  —  of  God,  162. 

Wootton,  Henry,  320. 

Worship,  corruptions  in,  2. 


486 


INDEX. 


Worthy  deeds  have  worthy  re- 
laters,  389. 

Xenophon,  30,  82,  105. 

Youth,  C9miption  of,  by  poetas- 
ters, 61*. 

Zanchius,  Jerome,  308. 


Zeal  for  truth,  65  —  fiery  chariot 
of,  85  —  examples  of,  in  the 
Church,  86. 

Zealots,  195. 

Zerubbabel's  opinion  of  truth, 
250. 

Zisca,  Boemar,  308. 

Zodiac  of  nature,  169. 


THE  END. 


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